Fiendfyre
by DangerousNightmare
Summary: He's faced the Dark Lord, suffered through countless hours of torture, and lived the life of a spy. However, nothing could have prepared him for the girl with fire in her heart. Severus Snape/ Hermione Granger, slow burn.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone, I got the idea for this story about two weeks ago, and I'm excited to see if it will actually spike people's interests. The pairings are Hermione and Snape, and be prepared for a slow burn! Snape is still going to be the terror that the students run from, and Hermione isn't going to instantly fall for her teacher. That being said, please enjoy this first chapter and give me some feedback (if reviews were a drug, us writers are addicts, and the crave is real).**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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Her first encounter with magic was nothing short of extraordinary to her parents, both of whom were regarded as muggles in this mysterious wizarding world. Unlike most children Hermione seemed to have unusually good control over her emotions which is why her magic never showed itself until she turned nine years old. Magic that a young child contained usually emerged when the child had a sudden spike of emotion, joy, anger, fear, or sadness, something that Hermione never really had, she had a plain life with her whole future set out in front of her. Her simplistic life changed when she encountered her first run in with a bully in the fifth grade, he had started making fun of her hair and teeth, which triggered an anger she didn't know that she had, it took the form of fire that licked the surface of her balled up hands. The bully called her a freak, her parents on the other hand saw a miracle. So when an old witch showed up at her doorstep two years later with an invitation to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, her parents were ecstatic and ordered that she immediately prepare for her new life outside of the comfort of her home.

A month later she found herself thrown in a magical world that by scientific terms, shouldn't have even existed. A normal day in the magic world (which was presently Diagon Alley) included gravity defying objects swirling amongst witches and wizards outfitted in robes and the occasional pointy hat, Goblins (which kindly exchanged her pounds for galleons), flying broomsticks, and other unexplainable things. It was all a bit overwhelming, but she didn't let it show on her face, her clothes alone told people that she wasn't from this world, but she didn't want to be looked down on because of where she came from. She could do just as well as any other witch, she just needed the chance to prove herself (of course she had already started to memorize that years textbooks).

She took some time to fully examine her supply list for that year, she almost thought that she would have had to carry a cauldron around with her until she made it to the school, but the heavier items were shipped directly to the school, which was a relief. Thus far she had everything, including her half-kneazle cat (which because of his rather squished face, she called Crookshanks), but she was lacking a wand.

She allowed herself to wander around Diagon Alley a while longer, she sometimes couldn't help but look in awe at world around her, paper birds floated around in the air, boys (particularly a young boy with a mop of red hair) stared longingly at screens displaying people flying on broomsticks with bats clenched in their hands, and the bookstores displayed books that were unlike anything she had ever seen before.

Her short walk brought her to the front of Ollivander's wand shop, she took in a breath and headed through the front doors. She batted her eyes as they adjusted to the sudden darkness of the dimly lit room, her nose twitched as she breathed in dust. Once her eyes adjusted she turned her attention to an old wizard seated behind a cluttered desk, on his head sat a helmet equipped with magnifying glasses, he turned the object in his hands as he examined its every detail. The wizard was so invested in the object that she had to clear her throat to get his attention.

With a jolt the wizard dropped the object and pulled his helmet off, he met Hermione with a blue eyed stare and offered her an apologetic smile.

"I apologize for my being occupied young miss." He picked the object up once again and held it up to her view. It looked like a stick with knobs running along its length, she realized then that he was really holding a wand, she let a grin find its way to her face. "I assume your here for one of these." He gazed at the wand at his hand before placing it back on the desk.

"Yes sir, my name is Hermione Granger." She smiled lightly and stuck her hand out to the wizard, who took it with gentle rough hands.

"Well Miss Granger please allow me to take a minute to fish out some wand candidates. The wand does indeed choose its master, but I'd like to believe that I make the process a little more bearable." With that Ollivander released her hand and whisked off and disappeared amongst the tall shelves of wands.

As time passed on Hermione started to get a little bit restless, the only thing indicating the Ollivander was still present was the occasional crash presumably caused by an avalanche of falling wands. To occupy her time Hermione tried to pick up on the quirky details that the shop contained: The flickering flames that lit the room belonged to no candle, instead they were simply suspended in the air, and the wands occasionally moved to a different shelf. The wands. Everything about them beckoned to Hermione, each box seemed to contain a little secret that she had yet to unfold, and the solitary wand on Ollivander's desk nearly drove her insane with the crave to touch it. She felt different in this room, and every moment alone increased her bond to the boxed wands, and her crave to wield the wand on the old wizard's desk.

So she did. For the first time in her young life Hermione invaded a strangers privacy and ran her fingers along the welcoming surface of the wand seated on Ollivander's desk. The bond was immediate, she felt a rush of warm air fighting its way through her, her lips pulled into a smile as she felt butterflies dance in her chest, and she felt a joy that she had never known lodge its way into her heart. She wanted to close her fingers around the wand, but Ollivander's noisy shuffling cut her short, she yanked her hand away and scrambled away from his desk.

Oblivious to the flustered witch, Ollivander dropped an armful of boxes onto his desk with a wide smile. "My dear young witch I believe your wand is in one of these boxes.' He cheered. He winked at her and picked up a gray box from his pile, he gently removed the top and plucked the wand out of its cushioned resting place. It was light in color, and was engraved with delicate vines. "This one is made from Vinewood with a core of dragon heartstring." He held the wand out to her and waited patiently as she hesitantly took the wand in her hand.

She felt the bond again, her heart raced, the blood in her veins seemed to have warmed, and a honey glow emitted from the wand which washed the room with a gold hue. Hermione let out a gasp that was considerably quiet compared to the woop that Ollivander let out.

"My dear that wand has chosen you! It is a rare event that one leaves this shop without trying at least three of my wands. You should be proud child." Ollivander gleamed at her

"Thank you Mr. Ollivander" Hermione said breathlessly, she retrieved seven Galleons from her pocket and placed them into Ollivanders's awaiting hand.

"Your welcome child, I expect great things out of you Miss Granger. Treat the wand well." Ollivander said, he turned away from the girl and took his seat back at his desk. Hermione once again stared longingly at the wand on his table, she was about to ask him about it, but was interrupted when the door to the shop swung open revealing a young boy with black hair and striking green eyes. Hermione politely smiled at the boy (who was too distracted by the shop to smile back) and made her leave, with the wand on the table still lingering in her mind.

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 **That's it for the first chapter, let me know what you think about it and if you have any theories about Hermione's experience in Ollivander's. Also expect a minor time jump in the next chapter. Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**H** **i everyone! I'd like to give a quick shout out to my reviewers** **SB- Potterhead Budgie Lover, Padme.G, and Antha. I'd also like to thank playwright82 for sharing your own theory about the story.** **T** **hank you to all** **of** **my viewers, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

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October 15th 1991

When Hermione got to Hogwarts she didn't expect that her blood status would have been so obvious, apparently wizarding families went way back to the beginning of magic. So showing up to school with the last name "Granger" immediately isolated her from everyone else. The only one's who didn't really care about such things were sitting with her in the warm Gryffindor common room, all of them sharing a mutual respect for each other as they blatantly avoided mentioning where they came from.

Harry Potter cradled the hot cocoa in his hands as he silently listened to Neville Longbottom, who was currently going on about his most recent failure in potions class. Hermione avoided opening her mouth on the subject, mainly because she didn't want to inform the boy that he was doomed for such failures for the rest of his Hogwarts career, and also because she had no desire to lecture about the nature of their potions professor. Hermione cringed at the thought, Professor Snape was by all definitions completely terrifying.

"He never told us that potions _had_ to be stirred a certain way, he just glared at me! How was I supposed to know if that look meant "yes" or "no". It's not like I can read his mind." Neville ranted, he looked at his comrades for approval and they all nodded eagerly. One boy, a red head named Ronald Weasley, was particularly thrilled to have the conversation.

"Man could you imagine what goes on through that guys head? I bet there's some crazy messed up stuff floating around in there." He wrinkled his nose in distaste and added a handful of marshmallows into his mug, he glanced over at Hermione who was currently reading a text on the magical abilities of different types of beetles. "What do you think of the old bat Hermione?"

"I think that we shouldn't speak of our professor in such a rude manner Ron, and clearly he's not that old." Hermione stated, Ron rolled his eyes at her and Harry glared at her.

"Hermione, Snape has never given you credit for any of your hard work, he never helps his students." Harry gave Neville a sympathetic look, which Neville accepted with a nod. "and he lets his house get away with _everything_. How can you defend him?" He demanded.

"Because he's our professor Harry, and Professor McGonagall is guilty of favoritism too. It doesn't matter how he treats us as long as we learn. If Neville cared enough to look in a textbook he would have known whether or not a potion had to be stirred a certain way." Hermione ignored it when Ron scoffed and gently shut her book, Harry rolled his eyes at her and Neville turned scarlet from embarrassment. "I'm sorry that you guys don't like Professor Snape, but he's our professor so we have to show him the respect that he deserves. Neville if you need help in class I will be your lab partner for a couple of weeks." Neville nodded eagerly at her, but both Ron and Harry gave her identical disapproving looks as she swept away.

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Severus Snape was used to the dumbfounded looks that he received in class when he asked a question, it was almost expected to happen in every class, every single day. Even the Seventh years cringed whenever he asked a question, and they always came up short. Always. He hated it, and he waited every single year for a fresh batch of students who cared enough to do their research and show up to class prepared. About a month ago he finally got part of his wish, and his first year class was given the gift of Hermione Granger. Severus should have been happy to have such a bright and talented girl in his class, but he, by all definitions, despised the girl.

"Can any of you lazy miscreants tell me why some parts of an ingredient can be optimal for one potion, but lethal in another." Severus drawled, the Potter boy did what he did every day, which was glare at him for the entirety of one hour, The Weasley boy dozed off, Longbottom was trembling where he sat, and young Draco Malfoy gazed up at him with pride. The rest of the class shared that famous dumbfounded look, and only one hand was stuck in the air.

"No one? It was in your reading last night if I remember. You all were supposed to write an essay on it, in fact I have them in my hands right now." Severus emphasized by gripping a stack of papers, the one hand seemed to reach farther in the air, he wondered how long it would stay up there.

He looked down at the papers in his hands and ruffled through them, he selected Weasley's essay out from the bunch and cleared his throat. "Apparently thinks that it's because some ingredients are simply "better than others"." The Weasley boy woke up from his nap and gave the professor a startled look. "Fifteen points for falling asleep in my class Mr. Weasley, and detention for this pathetic thing you call an essay." The Gryffindors gave a collective groan as the boy dropped his head in despair.

Severus glanced around the room once more, still only one solitary hand was up in the air. Severus narrowed his eyes and chose another essay. "Mr. Longbottom I can't seem to read your essay, it is illegible child. Did no one teach you proper penmanship, or at least how to hold a quill?" Severus demanded, he crumbled the essay and tossed it at the boy's feet. "You will receive a grand total of zero points for that assignment, unless you would care to read your essay in front of the class?" Longbottom sputtered and picked up his balled up essay from the floor, he hung his head in defeat and turned an odd shade of purple. "No? Fine then keep your zero. 20 points from Gryffindor for cowardice." Severus snarled.

Potter slowly started to turn red, and to Severus's utter disbelief the one hand was still in the air. "Mr. Potter I would have read your essay, but it seems that you have not turned one in. Perhaps you would like to explain why." The boy remained stubbornly quiet and continued to glare at him.

"Well I'd give you detention, but you're simply not worth my time." Severus set the pile of essays on his desk and looked out at his class. "You will all redo this assignment, and you will continue to redo it until every last one of you has an acceptable answer to my question. Since I cannot teach you further, class is dismissed for the day." He declared, and finally after this whole time the owner of the lone hand let out a tiny squeak of objection.

"Can I help you Miss Granger?" Severus snarled, the girl didn't even flinch, but the rest of the class was practically tripping over each other in order to escape the classroom.

She practically beamed at him when she started to explain "I knew the answer to you question professor, it has to do with the-"

"Save it Miss Granger, I have no interest in hearing your explanation for the next thirty minutes. You may leave the class and join your colleagues now." Severus dismissed her with a wave and turned to attend to his ungraded papers. Granger remained in her seat and chewed absentmindedly on her finger nail.

Severus grabbed a pile of papers and turned to his remaining student, who looked up at him innocently. "Is there a reason why your are still in my classroom Miss Granger." Severus asked with a sigh, the girl shuffled awkwardly in her seat and stopped chewing her nails, he noticed suddenly that she was actually rather nervous. "Well spit it out girl I don't have all day."

"Well you see professor people don't really like you." She started, she looked up to meet his glare and turned an angry shade of red. "But I don't think you're that bad." She looked up at him and nervously shot out of her seat and started to collect her things. Severus raised an eyebrow at her and silently considered whether or not he should be offended. On her way out of the classroom a book fell from her arms and with a flustered huff she reached her hand out and the book flew back to her. Before he could say anything the girl ran out of the classroom, leaving Severus with a dumbfounded look on his face.

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 **And that is the end of chapter two! I plan to have the next chapter entirely in Snape's point of view. Please leave me a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter, and if you have any theories about what is ahead. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone chapter three is here! In this chapter a new twist will be revealed, but an old plot line is being addressed which will offer characters outside of Hermione and Snape some character development. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

 **Special shout out to Onyx Obsidian, windyshoes, ndavis77, LoveInTheBattleField, playwright82, I See Thestrals, Guest, and awhile for leaving me their wonderful reviews. I'd also like to thank the people who have followed, favored, and viewed my story, as long as you guys are viewing, I'm writing.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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October 16th, 1991

2:00 AM

Headmaster's quarters

Severus couldn't say that he was particularly shocked by the random horrors that were currently going on around the school. Harry Potter had finally reached the age to attend the school and as he predicted, the boy became a magnet for trouble. Luckily it hasn't affected the students yet, but the magical creatures in the forbidden forest, especially the unicorns (whose blood was powerful enough to bring one back from the verge of death.) suffered terribly. These attacks led to the immediate lock down of the forbidden forest which kept classes from being held in or near it, and it also caused Albus to hunt down one of the most powerful magical objects in the world. The Philosophers stone.

Every time he heard Hagrid report a dead magical creature, seen Albus toy with the stone on his desk, or looked into the eyes of the boy who lived, he felt it. Branded into his left arm was the mark of an absent, but not defeated, dark Lord, and it pulled on his magic as if it could anticipate its creators return. Soon his hell would resume and he would once again have to stand beside pure evil, and he would have to do unthinkable things to innocent souls. His claim to sanity and peace was guaranteed to shatter, but he was determined to hold on to that part of himself for as long as possible.

This brought him into the cheery atmosphere of Albus Dumbledore's office at two in the morning. Albus had his house elf preparing them a cup of tea, and the old wizard was offering Severus several different types of candy. He politely declined his offers and he tried to stop staring at the philosophers stone, which was carelessly placed on a small table in front of them.

"Severus, I believe you know why you are here tonight?" Albus stated, he politely accepted tea from his house elf, who silently disappeared shortly after with a pop. "I hate to ask you to accomplish this so late in the night, but the children cannot be suspicious. I fear the curiosity of it all will land our little artifact in the wrong hands." Albus gestured at the small stone on the table, it was blood red in color and had a few jagged edges around it.

"And you're sure that Hagrid has what we need to keep that thing hidden?" Severus asked, he silently fumed as Albus' lips pulled into a tiny smirk.

"I assure you my dear friend that no one in their right head would ever try to get past Hagrid's form of defense." Albus popped a lemon candy into his mouth and made a sour face.

"Albus I'll make sure that the task will be finished within the hour." Severus went to get up but Albus halted him with a wave of his hand.

"Severus something is bothering you, if you have any doubts about this I must here them now." Albus urged, Severus settled back into his chair and considered whether or not he should complain about the stones hiding spot. However in that moment he thought of something just as important.

"It's Miss Granger." Severus started, the old wizards eyes suddenly started to sparkle with enthusiasm.

"Ah Miss Granger, Minerva tells me that she's a very bright witch." Albus exclaimed, he caught Severus's glower and mumbled a quick apology.

"The girl practiced wandless and nonverbal magic yesterday Albus. I don't think she understood how advanced her actions were either." Severus explained. He waited for Albus to make some kind of reaction, but the old wizard just sipped at his tea as if he was waiting to hear the rest of the story. "You are not surprised by this?" Severus asked.

"That may seem impressive to you Severus, but I assure you that the girl is simply growing into her magic. Such occurrences should cease as she progresses throughout the year, but if she is still preforming as you explained, I will speak with her myself."

"This is a peculiar occurrence that we're dealing with Albus, I suggest that we take action now. She could become a very powerful witch as she ages, if she doesn't learn how to control it now it may destroy her." Severus winced at the thought.

"Severus we deal with peculiar magic every day, you yourself are an example. Not much can be explained about your current state." Severus scoffed as Albus gestured towards him. "You haven't aged a day in over ten years and we both know that dark magic wasn't involved."

"Fine Albus, we will wait." Severus shot out of his seat and nodded respectfully towards the Headmaster. "I will complete my task as promised."

"May I ask about your relationship with young Harry?" Once again Severus was stopped from leaving, he let out an impatient huff.

"I have nothing to say about the boy and our relationship. The only claim to power that the boy has lies within his title." Severus scoffed. "The boy who lived is nothing more than an average student who isn't and probably will never be prepared to face the Dark Lord."

"Perhaps if you gave the boy a chance he would learn from you Severus." Albus suggested, Severus rolled his eyes in response.

"Even if I could manage to teach the boy I could only help so much. My current job is to teach students how to brew potions, not battle against Dark Lords. You should have thought of that before you handed the Defense Against the Dark Arts position to Quirrell." Severus stated, just thinking about the stuttering professor made him cringe.

"Very well Severus, you may leave now. Hagrid should be prepared by the time you get to his hut." Albus dismissed him and poured himself another cup of tea. Severus cast one last glance at the Philosophers stone before swiftly exiting the room.

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The trek towards Hagrid's hut was a rather long one, and it was eerily quiet save for a few shrill insects. He uttered a quick Lumos and was using his wand to light the way, he stared at the smooth skin of his wand bearing hand. Albus had thrown a low blow when he mentioned his condition, he hadn't been able to age in over ten years and he had no idea why. He should have the body of a thirty year old man, instead he was stuck in his twenties.

He wasn't allowed to enjoy the benefits of slowly dying as every human did, and he was doomed to facing the Dark Lord without an explanation to his unusually preserved body.

When he approached the but he was surprised to see the half giant already waiting for him in the doorway. He whispered "nox." and swiftly pocketed his wand in his robes.

"Oi professor Snape, it's good to see ya." Hagrid exclaimed he smiled at Severus, who slightly curled his lips in response. Hagrid's bloodhound trotted over to him and lazily sniffed his foot, apparently satisfied the dog swept away and disappeared behind the hut.

"I'm here for the thing Dumbledore wanted." Severus explained, as soon as he mentioned Dumbledore the giant literally started sweating. "Please tell me that nothing illegal is hiding away in that hut of yours."

Hagrid let out a forced laugh and quickly shuffled into his hut, when he emerged he held a black writhing animal in his arms.

"What the hell is that thing?" Severus demanded, he took a step back when Hagrid attempted to hand the animal off to him.

"Why this 'ere fella is Fluffy, Professor Dumbledore let me get 'im fer your project up at the school." Hagrid explained, he set the animal on the ground and it immediately jumped on all fours. Severus snorted when all three heads of the dog started growling at him. "He's a little bigger than that so make sure that you get 'im to the school in the next couple of hours. Wouldn't want the thing runnin' 'round the school chasing students."

Hagrid pulled out a flute and played a few notes, knocking the aggressive dog unconscious. He handed the flute to Severus and explained the affect of music on the dog. "A few notes out of the flute should put 'im down fer a while."

Severus nodded and swept the sleeping dog into his arms, he looked back at Hagrid who's eyes started to sparkle with tears. "He's all ready fer ya now. Take good care of 'im for me." Hi voice cracked as he slowly disappeared into his hut.

On his way back to the school Severus silently stroked the silky fur of the dog and silently prayed that it would do its job to protect the stone. He looked down at the unconscious dog, one of it's heads had its tongue sticking out. "You are an ugly little mutt." Severus stated, the dog let out a tiny growl in response. Severus chuckled but did reasonably pick up his pace as he approached the school.

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 **So did you guys enjoy this chapter? I know a lot of odd magical occurrences are happening to both Hermione and Snape, but I promise you they all are going to add up (I can't tell you when but it's definitely not going to happen soon.) because everything in this story happens for a reason. Please leave me review and let me know what you think of the story, do you like it? Hate it? Do you have any predictions for later chapters? Let me know!**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone! I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I really hope you guys enjoy it. Lots of thanks to everyone who has read and followed this story so far, every last one of you motivate me to keep writing!**

 **Special thanks to my reviewers: ndavis77, riaroo400, playwright82, Onyx Obsidian, Guest, and Luna Lion46. A couple of you pointed out some errors that I made in the last chapter including the issue with Snape's age (to clarify Snape looks 21 in the story right now.) and spelling mistakes. Thank you so much for helping me out with that!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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October 31, 1991

Hermione was always an outcast, her reading habits separated herself from everyone, she wasn't into girly things, and she was starting to think that her magic worked a little different from everyone else. She noticed that every witch and wizard who practiced magic seemed to go through a process: their eyes would sparkle, their skin would have a lavish glow about it, and it caused the caster to portray a certain amount of giddiness. Hermione didn't share the same experience, whenever she used her magic it seemed to only meet her half way. She didn't get that stunning glow, and she was never truly happy like the others. She considered it yet another one of her weaknesses that made her appear more muggle than witch, to everyone else she was still just a scrawny little girl with obnoxious hair that was worth nothing in the magical world. She felt that fact run deep in her heart every day for the past couple of months, and it only got worse as the days went by.

"'Mione, are you alright?" Ron poked her roughly in the shoulder which brought her attention back to the task at hand. Everyone in the charms class was attempting to preform the most basic spell "Wingardium Leviosa" (more commonly referred to as the levitation spell), and all wands were flickering impatiently at the giant fluffy feathers provided by Professor Flitwick. Ron seemed to have some issues getting his feather up in the air and was giving her the same face he made when he needed an essay spell checked.

"Sorry Ron, try doing it again. I believe you're pronouncing it wrong. It's Leviosa not Leviosaa." Hermione explained, she immediately regretted saying anything when Ron's face turned an angry shade of red.

"Fine then since you seem to know everything." Ron whipped out his wand again and waved it erratically in the air. "Wingardium leviosa!"

Believe it or not the feather actually flattened itself on the desk in response.

Harry, who was sitting on the other side of Ron, sneezed, sending his feather flying in the air. "This is hopeless." He grumbled.

"See? It still doesn't work. Could you just tell us how to do it, and stop showing off!" Ron demanded, he waved at the ceiling where Hermione's feather was suspended, it swayed slightly as Hermione's wand hand twitched with agitation. She had that feather in the air for over twenty minutes. Neville, who was sitting next to Harry, let out a startled shriek when his feather flung off his desk and zoomed out of the classroom. "Wait come back!" He cried, the entire class started laughing as the young boy took off running after it.

"I refuse to bring down my feather to make you feel better. If you stop waving your wand around like a stick it will work." Hermione snapped, for that she received an eye roll from Ron and Harry raised his brow at the two of them. "Do you two always have to bicker?" Harry demanded, he waved his wand for emphasis and suddenly his feather took flight. "I've done it!" He exclaimed, Ron's jaw dropped and Hermione started to chuckle. Professor Flitwick praised Harry, who slowly levitated his feather to hover next to Hermione's.

"Maybe there's something wrong with my wand. It's really not mine you know." Ron mumbled sadly, he stared longingly at the two feathers suspended in the air and flinched as Neville ran past the classroom, still yelling after his runaway feather.

"Nonsense, let me have it." Hermione offered, she went to grab Ron's wand, who immediately pulled it from her reach. "Absolutely not! Stop trying to show off Hermione!" Ron yelled, everyone immediately stopped trying the spell except for Seamus Finnigan, who thankfully broke the awkward silence when his feather exploded.

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"How long do you think that thing is going to be up there?" Harry asked, he Neville and Ron were in the dinning Hall which was elegantly decorated for the Halloween festivities. jack o lanterns hung in rows above the tables, the professors (except for Snape) all wore a variety of orange and purple robes, and the enchanted ceiling displayed a perfect night sky, save for a lone feather which was trapped on the ceiling next to the full moon.

"I don't know, I'm not doing a spell or anything. At least I don't feel myself doing a spell." Neville explained, all of them averted their eyes from the feather and looked at the vacant seat in front of them.

"You must have really hurt her feelings Ron. She's been gone all day." Harry stated. Neville nodded his head in agreement and added solemnly "I heard that she's been crying in the girls bathroom the entire time."

"It's not my fault that she's a know it all!" Ron exclaimed, both of his friends glared at him and he shrunk down into his seat.

"Yea she's a know it all, but one day we'll all probably work for her." Neville commented, Harry nodded in agreement and Ron let out a whimper.

"What made you go off on her anyway?" Harry asked, Ron prepared to explain but was interrupted by the sound of shrieking. All the students turned towards the noise and stared in alarm as Professor Quirrell ran into the Great Hall, his face was a mask of horror as he started screaming.

"Troll!" He screeched. "There's a troll in the dungeon!"

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Hermione felt as if a weight had been permanently pressed on her shoulders, she had to fit in but she just didn't know how. Ron certainly proved that she had been doing it the wrong way. Perhaps she would never fit in, which was the thought that had her locked in a stall all day, sniffling as tears ran down her cheeks.

She held her wand firmly in her hands and thought back to the day when her powers revealed themselves, it was a rather confusing day. She struck out at a bully with fire in her fists, and she remembered being terrified yet exhilarated at the same time. That magic surged through her veins and warmed her from the inside out, but it was gone so fast, her fear of her own power smothered the flames.

She wished to feel that way again, she thought she would find it at Hogwarts, but she didn't. The only thing that came close to it was when she first touched ollivanders wand, and held her own. She looked down at her wand and silently commanded it to give her that feeling again, but it didn't give in to her wishes so she shoved it into the pocket of her robes.

She sat in silence for a while and considered whether or not she should join the Halloween feast. Her contemplations were disturbed by the sound of someone noisily entering the bathroom. She waited for the person to do their business and leave, but to her utter annoyance said person start pounding on her stall door.

"This stall is occupied." She called out, to her surprise she heard a rather loud growl in response. Before she had a chance to react the door to her stall exploded.

Trolls, Harry noticed, were quite funny looking for something so dangerous. They had obnoxiously large ears that stuck out of their heads, their faces had a certain dopey look to them, and their preferred choice of weapon was what looked like a part of a fallen tree. However, their goofy appearance all but disappeared when the troll in the girls bathroom reduced the door to Hermione's stall to splinters with a single swing of its club.

"Hermione move!" Harry yelled, the boys ran in when the troll broke her stall down. They were all relived to see that she was able to shuffle her way to the next stall. The troll slowly turned towards Harry's voice and let out a strangled roar of anger.

"I think I just wet myself." Ron whimpered, Neville pushed in front of him and tossed a piece of debris at the trolls face, blood spouted from it's nose upon impact. All three of them dove out of the way as the troll swung at them with it's club. Hermione screeched in the background and huddled under a sink for protection.

"The club!" Harry exclaimed, Neville and Ron nodded and pulled their wands out.

"Wingardium leviosa!" Both pointed their wands at the club and smirked as it yanked out of the trolls hand. Ron flicked his wand and sent it flying into the trolls head, sending it crashing on to the floor.

Neville and Ron shared a victorious high five and ran over to the unconscious troll. Harry scrambled over to Hermione and helped her out from under the sink, he hissed when he saw the line of blood running from a cut above her left eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" He asked, to his surprise the girl grinned and gazed at the two boys celebrating over the fallen troll.

"I'm fine." She murmured, Harry nodded and smiled. She held on to his arm as he led her over to Neville and Ron (who rambled out a quick apology). All four of them shared a group hug and Hermione listened as they bragged about their troll hunting skills until Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell filed into the bathroom.

* * *

 **Again, I had so much fun writing that. Did you like this chapter? Let me know! Also what did you think of the Golden Quartet (Is that cheesy? Probably…)? I'll update again in about a week (maybe less if I have time) and the chapter will include a private conversation between Hermione and Snape. Thank you for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello readers, you guys have been so great with leaving reviews, following, and favoring so I've decided to drop this chapter early! I'm a few chapters ahead in the story and as of right now the first year is ending by chapter ten. I was very excited to see the positive response I got for giving Neville a significant role in the story because I really do enjoy writing his character. As promised Hermione and Severus will share a few private words in this chapter, but don't get too excited, there will be no romantic interaction between the two for a very long time.**

 **Special thanks to my reviewers: ndavis77, playwright82, Onyx Obsidian, and GOTTA LOVE YOUR SHIPS. Also thanks to my followers, favors, and viewers, all of you keep this story up and running.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

October 31, 1991 (continued)

Severus listened in amusement as Minerva attempted to discipline her four little Gryffindor cubs, at first she tried to scare them by describing the many different ways that they could have been killed, then she went on to tell them about how the awful nature of trolls, but all the while the boys grinned like crazy and Hermione looked like she was silently fact checking everything that Minerva said.

"Well since you four don't seem to care about your safety I am forced to take 25 points from each of you. You will all also receive a weeks worth of detention, which will be served Separately." She declared, Severus was impressed by how fast their grins fell from their faces. "Mr. Potter will serve his detention with me, Mr. Weasley with Professor Quirrell, Mr. Longbottom with Professor Sprout." Neville smiled slightly at that. "and Miss Granger with Professor Snape."

To his surprise Hermione didn't seem at all against that, but the boys next to her glanced at her with sympathy. Holding detention with the girl didn't seem so bad, she at least knew the difference between dittany and asphodel.

"I think we are done here." Albus stated, he directed his gaze at Quirrell who turned a peculiar shade of green "Professor Quirrell please go get Hagrid to help you relocate the troll." Quirrell nodded and scampered away. "Professor McGonagall please escort these young students to their dorms I'm sure they're very excited to." He paused and winked at the boys "Think about their actions." All three of them beamed at the headmaster, a small smiled worked its way to Hermione's face.

Professor McGonagall huffed and started herding the young students out of the wrecked bathroom. Hermione was about to leave when Dumbledore's hand fell on her shoulder. "Not you Miss Granger, I see you have a bit of a battle wound." Hermione winced when the headmaster pointed at her bloody brow. "You will follow professor Snape to the infirmary."

Severus scoffed and stiffly walked over to the girl, she looked up at him with giant honey colored eyes, and he silently wondered what sort of peculiar thoughts ran through her head. "Follow me Miss Granger."

* * *

Severus quite liked how the hallways looked at night, the school's enchanted windows ensured that the their was always some kind of light filling the hallways. A night like this with the full moon hanging outside warranted the hallways to glow a cool blue-green color, He looked over to the girl walking next to him, who was taking the sight in with wide eyes.

Severus allowed himself to analyze the condition of the girl, she held her ruined cloak in her hands which revealed her incredibly thin figure. He frowned at the sight, surely the girl was eating? Severus was always too distracted in class to really notice how underweight she was, perhaps it was her puffy hair (which currently had pieces of wood stuck in it) that distracted him from noticing anything else about her. He vowed to watch her over the next few days to make sure she was eating enough food, maybe he would even leave some snacks in the classroom for her while she served her detention.

He glanced at the cut above her brow, it was still bleeding slightly, though she didn't seem to notice. This was no surprise, the girl was constantly unaware of the things going on around her, or maybe she just chose to ignore them. She never stood up for herself when she got teased, and didn't whine over the house cup point systems like every other student did. Maybe she didn't care about those things, maybe she was just blind, Severus didn't know and for some reason it drove him crazy.

Severus pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out to her, she jumped slightly, apparently he pulled her out of a trance of some sort. She slung her cloak over one arm and took the silky white cloth from his hand and ran it through her fingers, she looked up at him in confusion.

"For your head." He flinched as his voice echoed through the silent hallway, he pointed to the wound on her head. She made a face that said "oh" and pressed the cloth on the scratch, she winced slightly but didn't complain. "I know you didn't try to go on a troll hunt by yourself Miss Granger." Severus added, before Minerva started lecturing, the young witch attempted to take all of the blame for the incident.

"I didn't, but if I wasn't in the bathroom they wouldn't have tried to battle a troll in the first place." Hermione admitted.

"From what I heard, those boys were the ones that caused you to hide in that bathroom all day." Severus commented, Hermione stiffened.

"So the whole school knows about it?" She asked. At first he considered lying to the girl, but she would find out the next day anyways.

"Yes."

Severus expected the girl to break down and cry like most girls her age would, instead she rolled her eyes and sighed. After that they walked on in silence for a few minutes, but every so often the young witch glanced up at him, bit her lip, then looked away.

"You wish to ask me a question." Severus sighed, the girl turned a light shade of pink and nodded her head. "Well go on and ask, but you know how I feel about my time and breath being wasted." He warned.

"Why don't you let me answer questions in class anymore?" Her voice was a bit wavy when she asked, she removed the handkerchief from her head and anticipated his answer.

"Because if I did allow it your classmates wouldn't learn anything. Please put the handkerchief back on your head miss Granger." He demanded, the girl immediately pressed the handkerchief on her head and waited for an explanation. A portrait nearby shot a glare at the two and mumbled something about common courtesy. Severus lowered his voice a little bit and started to explain. "You are rather talented at memorizing an alarming amount of information, your fellow classmates see this and think that they can lounge around in my classroom while you provide the answer to every single question I ask. Everyone knows that _you_ already know the information Miss Granger and the rest of your classmates have become lazy because of it."

Severus looked down at the girl and was surprised to see her face, which was full of defeat. "Most people would take that as a compliment Miss Granger."

"Thank you." Hermione murmured, she looked away from him and seemed a little too focused on the blue-green walls of the hallway. Severus didn't miss the silent tears that traveled down her face.

* * *

When he was a student, Madam Promfrey knew him better than any of the other professors in the entire school, mainly because the dreadful marauders constantly sent him to the infirmary with their pranks. When he walked Miss Granger into the infirmary the old witch clasped her hands together in excitement and hurried over to them.

"Severus, it is so good to see you." She glanced over at Hermione and gave her a sympathetic look. "Ah, but under such unfortunate circumstances I see." She knelt down in front of Hermione and pulled the handkerchief away from the wound, she examined it for a couple of seconds and then smiled at the girl. "My dear girl I'll heal that scratch up in a second, go sit over there." She pointed to an infirmary bed. "let me just have a quick chat with your professor." Hermione nodded but awkwardly fumbled with the handkerchief in her hand.

"I'll clean and return this to you Professor." She offered. Severus glanced at the handkerchief, its pristine white surface was blotched with blood, he cursed inwardly. It was his favorite handkerchief.

"That is unnecessary Miss Granger, please go sit down."

With that Hermione quietly sat down on an infirmary bed across the room, Madam Pomfrey closed the privacy curtain with a wave of her wand and turned towards Severus.

"Care to tell me where you got that?" Promfrey whispered, she pointed at his left leg which was mostly hidden by his cloak. When Quirrell announced the arrival of the troll, Albus instructed Severus to check on the philosophers stone, and upon opening the door to its hiding place a very large and agitated Fluffy lashed out at him, leaving him with a nasty cut running down the length of his leg.

"I ran into a wall." Severus said lamely.

Madam Pomfrey huffed and shook her head."Same thing you've been telling me for twenty years, although I must insist that you allow me to heal that."

Severus nodded, but looked at the privacy curtain that Hermione was currently sitting behind. "The girl first, I promise to come back after she is returned to her dormitory." Madam Pomfrey nodded and followed his gaze.

"She's a little like you." The witch murmured. When Severus gave her a crazed look she chuckle lightly. "Think back to when you were her age Severus. She's brighter than anyone in her class, she doesn't quite belong to any particular group, and she has rather obnoxious hair." Pomfrey waved her wand at Severus's hair, the grease disappeared, and it puffed out a little bit. Severus scowled as Madam Pomfrey started to laugh, but followed obediently as she made her way over to Hermione. When the nurse pulled back the curtain they found the young witch curled up on her side, she was fast asleep. "She's so young Severus." Pomfrey looked up at, her old eyes were full of sadness. "I'm afraid that her heritage will put her in danger one day, possibly before she even has the chance to fully enjoy her childhood." the old witch stared silently at the young witch for a moment then stated."I won't wake her, shes had quite the exciting day and that cut can easily wait until tomorrow." She carefully pulled the curtain closed and turned her attention to Severus's leg. "Let's get that handled, shall we?"

* * *

 **That's it for chapter five! What did you guys think of this chapter? Do you think Severus is right to keep Hermione from answering questions in class? Do you feel that Severus and Hermione are truly alike? Let me know! Also the next chapter is in Hermione's point of view as she serves her week of detention, expect that update to come out soon. Thank you for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello readers! Chapter six is here! I didn't want to split it into two parts so this chapter is pretty long, I hope you all still enjoy it!** **When I uploaded chapter five I decided to preview it and was horrified to see that my P.O.V/Setting change indicators were deleted when I uploaded the chapters to the site. I recently added them back in and hopefully that won't be a problem in the future.**

 **Special thanks to geeksrockmysocks, Shelle007, playwright82, ndavis77, and Onyx Obsidian for your reviews! Also thank you to everyone who has favored, followed, and viewed this story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

November 11th,1991

Hermione chewed thoughtfully on a piece of potato as she looked over her essay on forgetfulness potion, they were to officially start brewing it on Thursday and she wanted to memorize the procedure and ingredients needed to complete it. She huffed angrily when a piece of chicken flicked onto her parchment paper and glared at the distracted culprit. Ron simply didn't eat. No, the redhead literally slaughtered his meals and made a tremendous mess around him in the process, on days where a messy meal is served people usually kept their distance to avoid flying pieces of food. Unfortunately, this was one of those days.

"Ron could you at least attempt to eat like a normal person?" Hermione demanded, she picked up the rouge piece of chicken in a napkin and tossed it on her plate. Ron looked up, two greasy chicken legs were grasped in his hands, and his food covered mouth was full. At first he tried to apologize verbally but he realized that he couldn't so he resorted to puppy eyes. On his left Harry raised his eyebrow at Hermione and smirked a little bit.

"Are you ever without homework?" Harry asked, amusement flickered in his eyes.

Neville, who was seated on Hermione's left chuckled and piped in."Only when she's been attacked by a troll, but even then I heard that she was asking for her homework as soon as she woke up in the infirmary." All of them laughed at this, and as soon as Ron managed to swallow the rest of his food he joined in on the conversation.

"That's true Neville, and I'll have you know Hermione that all witches and wizards get hungry after they preform magic." Ron explained, he gestured at Hermione's barely touched plate of food. "I'm surprised you don't eat more, you're the one that does the most magic here."

They all nodded in agreement and Hermione flared red. "I just don't have much of an appetite." She explained.

"Suit yourself." Ron said with a shrug, he pointed at an uneaten chicken leg on Hermione's plate. "Are you going to eat that?" Hermione shook her head and slid her plate over to Ron who immediately started shoveling the food into his face.

"Are you all ready to your first day of detention tonight?" Hermione asked, all of the boys (excluding Ron, whose mouth was full of food.) let out a groan and slouched in their seats. Professor McGonagall had been kind enough to give them a week to recover from their "incident", but now they would start serving detention for an hour every night for the next week.

"I'm alright with it." Neville stated proudly. Neville loved Herbology and Professor Sprout just happened to be the teacher that he would be serving detention with. The boy would basically be in heaven for the next week.

"Professor McGonagall told me that Malfoy would be with me the entire time." Harry complained, he hated the Slytherin boy and probably would for the rest of his life, them being together in a room was simply destructive. "But nothing is as bad as serving detention with Snape." Harry added.

Hermione rolled her eyes at this and got up from the table, her essay grasped lightly in her hands. "I'll see you boys tomorrow morning, don't forget to have this essay done by Wednesday."

"Yes Hermione." They all said in unison, Hermione laughed and made her way out of the great hall.

* * *

When Hermione arrived to the potions classroom she was slightly shocked to see that the room was significantly brighter than usual. The scones on the walls that usually contained cool green flames were now a bright golden, which made the room acquire a warmer atmosphere. At the head of the room Professor Snape was hunched over a piece of parchment paper and he was muttering something about "incompetent student." as he scribbled all over it with his quill.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me all night Miss Granger?" Hermione jumped in surprise as his deep voice filled the room. Professor Snape looked up at the girl and sighed. "Please bring me your wand Miss Granger, you won't be needing it tonight."

Hermione approached his desk and reluctantly placed her wand in front of him, she waited patiently for him to give her a job as he scanned his room with dark eyes.

"Miss Granger you have the very simple job of reorganizing the ingredients closet." Professor Snape muttered an incantation and a closet across the room swung open. "Do it any way you please, you may leave when you are done." He instructed.

"Yes Professor." Hermione stated, she walked over to the closet and frowned with confusion, all of the ingredients contained in the glass jars seemed perfectly organized. Insects were with insects, liquid ingredients were with liquid ingredients, plants with plants, it all seemed perfect. She stood staring at the ingredients for a moment, then shrugged, she could reorganize things five times over if she had to.

Hermione pulled a table close to her and started removing the jars from the shelves, placing them in alphabetical order as she did so. When she was done getting them out of the closet she pulled a chair up to the crowded table and started to think of an efficient way to organize the jars.

"Miss Granger, can you tell me what a forgetfulness potion is used for?" Professor Snape asked, Hermione glanced up at him in confusion, but his head was still bent over grading essays. Hermione fiddled with the jar in her hand and moved over to a pile she made for poisonous ingredients.

"Forgetfulness potion is used to cause short term memory loss to the one who drinks it." Hermione explained, she picked up a sickly green liquid mixture and placed it with the other neutral ingredients. "It doesn't have a known reverse potion and is usually preferred over the obliviate spell because it has a smaller chance to cause permanent damage."

"Very good Miss Granger." Professor Snape stated, Hermione beamed in response.

For the next thirty minutes Hermione organized the jars and carefully started placing them back into the closet. She occasionally ate an apple slice which the Professor kindly provided. Just as she was about to place the last jar on the shelf it slipped from her fingers and Hermione shot out her hand in attempt to grab it, she clenched her teeth as she expected the inevitable crash, but was pleasantly surprised to see it floating inches from the ground. At first she thought Professor Snape was levitating it, but then she felt an unusual pull of magic that she hadn't felt before. It seemed to travel along her arm and pull at her veins, washing her with a warm rush of adrenaline. Hermione withheld a giggle and slowly reached down to pick up the jar, she felt a disappointing loss when the magic seemed to retract from her veins, but was relieved at the same time as she finally finished her job. She looked over her shoulder to see if Professor Snape noticed the jar incident, but he was too busy with his essays to have noticed. Hermione closed the closet and walked over to the Professor's desk.

"I'm done." Hermione announced, Professor Snape looked up from his essays and shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well, you may leave."

Hermione picked up her wand and excitedly exited the classroom, eager to experiment with her newly found source of magic.

* * *

November 12th,1991

Apparently Ron's eating habits did make a little bit of sense, Hermione spent the entire night making things float around her room while her dorm mates weren't watching. At breakfast she ate her entire plate, and around dinner time she ate most of her meal and smacked Ron's hand away when he attempted to steal her bread roll.

She felt happy whenever she used that untapped source of magic and while she could use it without her wand it was more powerful when she did use it. Hermione finally felt as other witches and wizards did when they used magic, she got the giddiness, the glow, and the shock of adrenalin, but she didn't understand why. Was she not using her magic properly for the past three months?

That question crowded her mind as she entered the potions classroom for detention, she politely greeted the Professor, who was once again grading essays. "Hello Professor."

Professor Snape huffed in response. He looked up from his essays and waved his wand, the ingredients closet flung open. "Miss Granger, your job tonight is to reorganize the ingredients closet, you may leave when you are finished."

Hermione looked back at the closet in confusion, she had to reorganize it _again_.

"Is there a problem Miss Granger?" Professor Snape growled, Hermione shook her head and the Professor glared at the wand in her hand. "You may leave the wand on my desk."

So Hermione left the wand on his desk and approached the ingredients closet once again, she pulled a table close to her and started placing the glass ingredient jars on it, she occasionally used a bit of magic to help her pull jars off of the higher shelves.

"Miss Granger what ingredients are used in a Forgetfulness potion?" Professor Snape asked.

"Lethe river water, Valerian sprigs, and Mistletoe berries." Hermione listed, Professor gave a grumble of approval.

"And why are those ingredients used?"

This went on for the entirety of the detention, occasionally Hermione made a point that the Professor would comment on and other times the Professor would clarify some questions she had. Both of them worked while discussing it and they never actually made eye contact the entire time. It was the longest time that she and Professor Snape conversed and not once did the Professor bark at her for talking too much. It was refreshing and she was actually disappointed when she finished the reorganizing the closet, she reluctantly approached his desk and announced her completion of the job.

"Okay Miss Granger you may go." He stated, for a second he looked up at her and she could have sworn that she saw approval shinning in his eyes, but it didn't last long.

"Goodnight Professor." Hermione said politely, she picked up her wand and swiftly made her exit.

* * *

November 13th,1991

Potions class the next morning was actually quite enjoyable, Professor Snape spent the class period asking the same questions he asked her during detention. Hermione felt quite pleased to have already answered the questions and didn't attempt to raise her hand once during the lesson.

At detention that night Hermione greeted Professor Snape and as usual placed her wand on his desk, then proceeded to reorganize the ingredients closet. They easily slipped into a conversation and the entire detention seemed to fly by. After Hermione was done with the closet for the third time she ate the apple that the Professor gave her as slowly as possible to extend her time with him. By the time they were done talking she had spent a total of two hours in his classroom and was still relatively disappointed to leave.

* * *

November 15th,1991

On Friday Professor Snape had a small desk set up next to his, a small pile of vials filled with pink liquid were arranged on it. Hermione approached the Professor's desk and laid her wand down in front of him. "Hello Professor."

"Hello Miss Granger, please take a seat." He gestured towards the desk next to him. "There will be no closet reorganizing today."

Hermione gently took a seat at the desk and stared at the pink potions.

"You will help me grade the Forgetfulness potions tonight, the grade should be based on color, consistency, and amount. You may use this potion for reference." Professor Snape explained, he held up a vibrant pink vial which had the consistency of cough syrup. He placed it on her desk and pointed at the quill on her desk. "You know how I do it, place the grade on the bottom of the vial with red ink. Ask me for assistance if you need it."

Hermione nodded and picked up her first vial, the color was perfect but it had the consistency of gelatin. Hermione bit her lip and touched the quill to the bottom of the vial, it didn't deserve a fail, but it was also useless.

"I would give that potion a D Miss Granger." Professor Snape advised, he was holding a potion of similar consistency and shook the vial distastefully. "If one put this in their mouth it would have no effect."

Hermione felt bad for the student who made the potion, but scribbled the grade down on the vial anyway. It took her a while to get used to the process, but after a while it became easy and she was rapidly making her way through the pile of potions. They both were too focused on the task at hand to start a conversation and the whole room was silent save for the occasional clinking of vials. When Hermione was done she presented her Professor with the graded vials and waited for further instruction. Professor Snape looked over all of the vials she graded and hummed in satisfaction.

"Miss Granger these grades are appropriate, I appreciate your help." Professor Snape commented, Hermione smiled a little bit and watched as the Professor reached over and picked up the vial she was using for reference. "I must also congratulate you on your potion making skills." The professor conjured another potion and held them next to each other, both looked identical except one was slightly dimmer in color. "Your potion was nearly perfect."

Hermione felt her face warm slightly at that "thank you."

"I would like to offer you an apprenticeship." Professor Snape stated, and for the first time in five days he held eye contact with Hermione. She felt like she was going to explode with happiness, but the professor frowned slightly. "Unfortunately you are only a first year and you need to be at least in your second year to accept that offer. However that gives you plenty of time to think about it." He explained

That really hindered her excitement, but she nodded enthusiastically at the professor. "I will definitely think about it Professor, thank you!"

Hermione stood from her seat and picked up her wand from his desk, but she was hesitant to leave.

"Is there a problem Miss Granger?" Professor Snape asked, his black eyes still bore into hers and for a second she found it hard to speak.

"Could I have another week of detention?" She asked. She felt embarrassed as soon as it left her mouth, but was greeted with a smile from her Professor.

"No, but you may visit my classroom anytime you wish." He offered, Hermione beamed at that and offered a cheery "Goodnight" before she practically skipped out of the classroom. She didn't hear it, but Professor Snape mumbled a quiet "Goodnight" before she left.

* * *

 **The week of detention is over! I may do a separate chapter for Harry, Ron, and Neville that goes over their detention week, but I'm trying to finish up the first year. Let me know what you thought about the chapter! Hermione is starting to control her magic, Professor Snape offered her an apprenticeship, and he found a way to let her answer questions! There is so much to talk about, so leave me a review about your thoughts. Thank you for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello readers! Only a couple more chapters left in year one and then we can finally move on to the more exciting material. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

 **Special thanks to those who have reviewed, favored, and followed this story! Your thoughts and dedication to this story are very important to me and the development of this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

March 20th,1992

Severus enjoyed venturing into the Forbidden Forest ever since he first arrived Hogwarts, the forest offered blissful peace and a certain amount of privacy that a school full of hundreds of students rarely offered. The only noise that filled the forest that night was the joyful chirping of nocturnal insects and the occasional hoot of a rogue owl, it was nearly pitch black so Severus was holding his wand out in front of him to light the way. Unfortunately he wasn't in the forest for his own pleasure, Albus asked if he could investigate the unicorn deaths going on to see what they were up against.

This wasn't the first time that a unicorn hunt occurred, in fact it was quite an often occurrence due to desperate wizards looking to cure an illness or to make a small fortune. The horned beasts were completely pure in nature and were usually identified easily in the forest because of their pure white color, which usually led to their downfall. Their only true defense was the inevitable curse that would cause their killer to only live half a life, but even that couldn't keep them from being slaughtered.

So Severus was forced to serve this night in the forest looking for dead animals and although he cared for the well being of the unicorns and the deadly forest, he had enough to deal with back at the school. He had stacks of essays to grade, potions to tend to, and a peculiar girl to spy on. Yes, he was spying on Hermione Granger and as far as he was knew she had no idea. Back in November Severus enjoyed watching the girl make ingredient jars float in his classroom during her week of detention, and he was waiting patiently for the student to go beyond levitating things. Of course she was just a first year but one close look at the puffy haired, buck toothed, honey eyed girl revealed that she was much more than that, she practically radiated the magic of a full grown witch. If she could harness her magic properly she would be extraordinary, maybe even more powerful than himself, but he had to be cautious. A girl as curious as Hermione Granger would definitely try to push her power to its limit and likely wouldn't think twice about flirting with the dark arts to do so. That's why he offered her that apprenticeship in the first place, so long as she accepted his offer he could keep a close eye on her and eventually teach her about the magic within her.

Severus silently wondered what the girl was up to now, since usually she would spend this night grading finished potions. She did every Friday since November, in fact they developed a schedule that worked for the both of them. She came in every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday right after dinner in the great hall and would stay in his classroom for an hour and a half. On Tuesday and Wednesday Severus asked her the questions that he would go over in class the next day while she organized some part of the classroom, and on Friday she graded potions. At first Severus found it utterly preposterous that the girl actually wanted to do those things, but she seemed pretty happy while doing them, especially when Severus provided peaches for the girl. Turns out Miss Granger really liked peaches. Also she wasn't too bad to have around, unlike most of the students in the school she didn't cower when he spoke and she held good conversation on topics that people usually found boring. However Severus still found parts of the girl to be annoying, like her inability to stop speaking at times when he needed quiet the most, so really Severus didn't necessarily _like_ the witch, he just tolerated her.

Severus shoved the thoughts of the peculiar girl to the back of his mind and hauled himself over a dewy fallen tree, he stumbled a little bit when his feet fell on the uneven ground, and let out a string of curses when he felt a part of his robes rip. He grabbed his ruined robes around him and looked out at the clearing in front of him. He let out a sigh when he saw the giant mound of white that stuck out bright against the ground like a giant mound of snow. It was a unicorn. Severus approached the dead animal and squatted next to it, its face was locked in a look of terror and its legs were poised as if it was still attempting to run away, he tried to avoid its wide eyes as he examined the wound on its neck. Silver blood still oozed from gash and poured down its neck into gathered pools on the ground, Severus retrieved a small towel from his pocket and wiped the unicorn blood away from the wound to get a better look. Instead of the typical stab wounds that most unicorns died from, this one had an ugly crater deep into its neck, but it wasn't big enough to be a wild animal, nor would a wild animal be stupid enough to kill a unicorn. Additionally Severus spotted several silver coated hand-prints on the unicorns body, but who could be that desperate for unicorn blood? It worried him, especially when the killer was so close to the school grounds. Severus pulled a flask from his pocket and took a sample of the unicorn blood, thinking that it may indeed come in handy one day. With that he stood and stepped away from the fallen animal, before he could report his findings to Albus he would have to tell Hagrid to bury yet another unicorn body.

* * *

"Another one? Guess that's 'bout eleven now." Hagrid slouched sadly in his over-sized chair and cradled the unicorn blood sample in his giant hands. Severus was seated awkwardly on a stool across the giant and politely accepted a mug of tea while he broke the news to him, he placed the mug on a small table beside him which was rather cluttered.

"It couldn't have happened more than an hour ago, blood was still coming out of the wound. It looked like a human actually bit its neck out." Severus explained, the giant's eyes went wide at that.

"A human? I've never heard of that happening before." Hagrid said, he seemed to drift off, his eyes glazed over slightly as he focused on the cluttered table. A rather large flute was placed directly next to three small mugs and a half eaten turkey leg was getting cold as it sat on its plate.

"Well that's what it looks like and Albus needs to know now so we can decide on what to do next. I recommend you keep students far away from the forest." Severus took a closer look at the small mugs on the table and noticed that they were all filled to the brim with tea, there were exactly four which could only mean one thing. "Or away from your hut after curfew."

"Right… Well its been a pretty long day you should go-" Hagrid started.

"What kids came here after curfew and how long ago did they leave?" Severus demanded.

"It was just Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. They meant no harm, they were just curious about beasts." Hagrid stated, but he started trembling slightly. Anger flared through Severus at the mention of Miss Granger's name, of course she would have to hang out with those troublemakers, they were the marauders all over again.

"What beasts Hagrid?" Severus growled.

"Dogs." Hagrid mumbled, though he didn't quite meet Severus's eyes.

"Don't fool around with me Hagrid. What type of dogs?" Severus yelled.

"Fluffy. The kids asked about Fluffy." Hagrid admitted.

"Son of a bitch!" Severus felt panic surge into his veins as he stormed out of the hut, hoping that he might be able to make it to the idiot children in time before they did something stupid.

* * *

"So are you guys ready for this" Harry asked, he was surrounded by his three other friends, all determined to save the philosophers stone. They all nodded, wands clenched tightly in nervous fists. "Good. Hermione go ahead and open the door."

Hermione nodded and approached the sealed door, she placed her wand close to the lock and whispered "alohomora."

* * *

 **What did you guys think about this chapter? Thank you for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey readers! There's going to be a few P.O.V changes in this chapter, but I hope you all enjoy the chapter anyway. I have started a new story called "Crossroads" but I promise I still intend on finishing this story.**

 **Special thanks to those who have read, reviewed, favored, and followed this story! You are all very important to me and this story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

March 20th,1992

There were so many things that they should have considered before pursuing the legendary philosophers stone- perhaps if they had made a reasonable plan they wouldn't be in a life threatening situation, but they didn't formulate a plan and now Hermione, Neville, Ron, and Harry were all stuck in a nest of writhing vines. Neville was the first one to stop screaming after they tumbled into them, and was therefore the first one who pointed out their obvious screw up. Hermione tried to stay as still as possible as the vines started wrapping around her body and attempted to keep her arms from being snagged by them, she had to squint against the darkness of the room to locate her companions.

"You know maybe we shouldn't have come down here." Neville yelled, deadly vines started wrapping around his upper arms as he squirmed around.

"Thank you for that obvious statement Neville, we really needed to hear that." Ron shouted, he fell in an odd manner on the bed of vines and was laying awkwardly on his side while vines crossed his body.

"Well someone had to point it out! We had no business coming down here anyway, there was a giant three headed dog protecting this place for a reason." Neville huffed and swatted at the vines. "My grandmother is going to kill me if I die like this." he whimpered.

"Neville you're not going to die, at least you won't if you stop moving." Hermione narrowed her eyes at the boy, who nodded and fell still.

"What is this stuff?" Ron asked, he voice wavered as another vine snaked its way around his waist.

"Devil's snare." Neville cried. "We're all done for."

"NEVILLE STOP FREAKING OUT." Ron screeched.

"YOU STOP FREAKING OUT!"

"I'M NOT THE ONE FREAKING OUT, YOU ARE!"

"Would you two idiots shut it?" Harry finally yelled. "I have an idea to get us out, but we need fire or a light."

"Harry I don't think any of us can reach our wands at the moment."Hermione objected, she cursed herself for leaving her wand in her pocket.

"We're done for!" Ron wailed, he must have wriggled a little too much because the vines started to rapidly climb up his neck. "Harry help me!" the boy cried, all of them watched in horror as the vines covered Ron's face.

Hermione felt panic surge through her as Neville and Harry started to yell out Ron's name, she was so shocked that her lungs seemed to lock. _Fire_ , Hermione thought, _in order to save Ron we need fire._ She felt herself get feverish as she looked around for an answer, none of them had their wands so that was out of the question, they were all in a cellar hidden under a giant three headed dog so no one was going to hear them screaming. Then Hermione looked at her worthless hands and considered allowing the vines to crush her for being so negligent of her wand, but then she thought about what she could do with those hands. They could levitate things off the ground, all she had to do was stick her hand out and imagine that the item was floating. Perhaps if she thought of fire, it would work the same way.

So Hermione stuck a hand out towards the mass of vines and thought of fire- burning, angry, unstoppable fire. She felt that peculiar magic rise from within her and suddenly she felt like her whole body was in flames, she wanted to scream, maybe she was screaming, as hot lava raced through her veins and into her fingertips. Then she was falling, and as she panicked she felt like the fire in her was getting hotter, her eyes were clenched shut as she tried to will her magic to stop the pain, to stop making this fire. But her efforts were useless, she felt the back of her head explode as she finally made impact to the ground, and then it all went black.

* * *

"What just happened..." Ron picked himself off the damp ground and struggled to find the dim outlines of his friends, when he found Harry and Neville he scrambled over to them and gasped at an unconscious Hermione wrapped in Neville's arms.

"While you were being suffocated by a plant Hermione exploded." Neville winced as a he picked a piece of charred vine from her frizzy hair. "There was fire everywhere."

"Are you guys okay?" Ron tried to get a good look at them, but it was far too dark to see if they had been burned in any way.

"We're fine, she didn't burn us, just the vines around her. It was actually pretty amazing." Harry commented.

"Yeah you should have seen it! There were little animals running around in the fire-" Neville paused "did you see that too Harry?"

Harry nodded and Ron scoffed "Little animals?"

"Yeah, the flames turned into otters and dogs and stuff." Harry explained.

"Is that normal?" Ron looked at the unconscious girl with confusion.

"I think so, I used to start fires when I got mad before I even got to Hogwarts. She was probably so scared that she started the fire by accident. But it was a life saving accident." Neville shook his head sadly and looked down at the girl. "Well one of us has to stay here to take care of her for now and I elect myself because I didn't want to go after this thing in the first place.

"Fair enough Neville, let's go Ron."Harry carefully pulled himself off the floor and muttered "Lumos." His wand shed a brilliant white light throughout the room. Ron gasped at the charred tendrils of Devil's snare hanging limp from the walls, then looked at the harmless, scrawny looking girl on the floor.

"Okay, but remind me to never cross Hermione Granger. Ever."

* * *

Neville sat with Hermione close to him for close to an hour before he heard footsteps approaching them from the opposite side of the room, he whipped out his wand and shouted "Lumos" in anticipation for the return of his other two friends, but was greeted instead by his potions professor, who was approaching him with a snarl on his face.

Neville laid the unconscious girl on the ground and scrambled to his feet as Snape approached him, the man looked like he was about to say something, but then he looked down at Hermione's limp body and his face twisted into something between rage and fear. Neville whimpered as the wizard ran over to him and roughly grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"Tell me what happened to Miss Granger immediately." Snape yelled, Neville tried to pull away from the professor, but the man's grip was tight.

"The um.. I don't- Hermione-"

"Tell me you useless boy!" The Professor hollered.

"She exploded, there was fire everywhere!" Nevilled cried, he stumbled as the man let him go. The man knelt by the girl and touched her wrist to check her pulse, his fingers barely grazed her skin before he pulled back and turned his attention towards Neville, the anger from his face suddenly gone.

"I apologize for my actions Neville, please stay with Miss Granger while I collect your friends."

"y-yes professor."

Snape nodded once at Neville, then turned on his heel and walked away. Neville felt himself starting to relax when the Professor was well out of sight, he knelt by Hermione and thanked her silently for her ability to calm down the raging Professor.

As promised, Snape returned to Neville with Harry limp in his arms and Ron standing next to him, blood ran from the top of Harry's head and Ron had a small cut on his cheek. Snape insisted that Harry was okay and told him once again to wait by Hermione while he delivered his friends to a safe place. When he returned the wizard told Neville to follow him, and he watched as the potions master carefully and rather hesitantly gathered the unconscious witch in his arms. Soon they were out of the dark room, past the three headed dog, and finally safe at the infirmary. Neville was instructed by a flustered Madam Pomfrey to sit down on the nearest bed and to wait for her, Snape was still holding Hermione in his arms when the curtain next to his bed closed shut, shielding them from his view.

* * *

"She's waking up!" whispered a voice, Hermione withheld a groan and fought against her eyes, which so desperately wanted to open, but she was still mentally exhausted and wanted nothing but sleep.

"Shut up Harry let her wake up on her own." Boomed another voice, Hermione's eyes flew open as a headache brutally made itself known, she groaned and rubbed her temples as the blurry figures of her friends came into view.

"HERMIONE!" Hermione smiled weakly as all three of her friends shouted her name and started shoving cards and candy in her direction. Madam Pomfrey was across the room, her arms crossed in agitation.

"I told you boys to let her get her rest." The witch scolded. "You may visit for ten minutes, then I want you all in class, understand?"

"Yes Madam Pomfrey." they called, Hermione giggled as all three boys tried to talk to her at once.

"You should have seen how awesome you were!" Neville cheered.

"Yeah there was fire _everywhere_ and it was all like." Harry started making explosion noises and waved his arms around.

"And then when I saw you on the ground I thought you were _dead_." Ron added.

"Yeah then we left you with Neville and we played real life Wizards chess!" Harry announced.

"And Hermione, you were right, Snape wasn't the bad guy! It was Quirrell! He had two faces!" Ron exclaimed. "I mean I didn't see it but it sounded wicked."

"What happened to the stone?" Hermione asked.

"It's been destroyed." Harry said solemnly, he didn't go into any detail after that.

So for exactly ten minutes Madam Pomfrey allowed the boys to overwhelm her with their versions of events, but then they were all banished and Hermione was left in peace, but only for a moment. The young witch felt Professor Snape's presence before he even entered the room, she brushed the hair out of her face and sat up in her bed just as the wizard entered the infirmary and approached Madam Pomfrey. He spoke with the older witch for a second and then awkwardly made his way over to her bed, she noticed that he had a weird look on his face.

"Miss Granger, welcome back." He greeted, his voice was flat and emotionless.

"Thank you Professor."

"You understand that certain things happened yesterday that you must never tell your other housemates, correct?"

"Yes sir." Hermione said with a nod, she looked up at the Professor, who refused to meet her eyes. "Something happened."

"Yes." For the first time Hermione noticed the tired demeanor about her professor, how he acted much older than he actually was, and how good he was at shielding his emotions on the spot. He didn't have to meet her eyes for her to know that something was terribly wrong, perhaps it was because his face was paler than usual, or maybe it's because Hermione felt his despair like it was her own.

"Am I in trouble?" Hermione kept her lip from quivering as she asked this, the last thing she needed was to be expelled.

"No."

Hermione sighed in relief, but was saddened to see that her Professor still wouldn't look at her, his focus remained glued on the flowers on the table next to her.

"Okay."

"I will see you in class tomorrow Miss Granger." Professor Snape yanked himself away from the foot of her bed and sped out of the room, his robes billowing behind him like giant black sails. Hermione felt loss as soon as he left and her vision blurred as tears threatened to spill from her burning eyes.

In that moment Hermione pledged to never use that strange magic in her ever again, because she never wanted to feel this pain, or watch someone walk away from her like that ever again.

* * *

 **Only a couple more chapters left for the first year and I'm so happy that people like this story as much as I like writing it! Making Harry into a leader is one of my focuses in this story, even if Hermione is going to be potentially bad-ass (hint, hint) I want Harry to take on the leader role of the group. Next chapter should be up soon, but until then please leave a review (they really do keep stories alive guys) and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello readers! Year one is finally coming to an end and I am very excited to move on to year two. I hope you all like this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

June 4th,1992

Exam week was the most exhilarating experience Hermione ever participated in and she was enjoying ever moment of it. It was one of the few ways that she could display her talents without being called a show-off and every student had to fend for themselves rather than hitchhiking off of another student's work. The scratch of quills on parchment paper and the nearly uniform motion of wands was nearly therapeutic, which all but erased the stress that gradually built up throughout the year. Right now Hermione was completing her transfiguration essay, this would be the last essay that she would ever have to write for the rest of the year as this was her last exam, and she couldn't help but allow her mind to wander as she added her finishing touches.

Perhaps the most troubling issue that plagued her mind was caused by her potions professor, who now truly resented her. Ever since the Philosopher's stone incident he ignored her and avoided her saddened eyes, which gave Hermione the impression that he probably wouldn't want to see her after class either so their after school system ended. Hermione knew that she caused this resentment-exploding in an inferno of fire and breaking at least twenty school rules was enough to cause permanent damage to a student-teacher relationship. However, none of the other teachers shared the same disappointment and hatred that Professor Snape displayed, instead they offered the small group of brave students praise and encouragement for their actions. Although their words were nice and appreciated, it still didn't ease the pain of losing the favor of her favorite Professor.

A loud clash boomed through the silent classroom, all heads turned in the direction of the noise which belonged to a brass goblet that tumbled to the ground, Hermione felt embarrassed for Ron who turned a bright red color as he went to retrieve the goblet. A slight scraping was heard as the goblet rolled away from Ron's outstretched hand, he let out a huff of confusion and lunged at it but it rolled at an alarming speed away from him and struck Professor McGonagall's foot, who watched the entire scene with annoyance. She bent down and retrieved the cup then set it on her desk and promptly told Ron to take his seat, the baffled boy nodded his head and scrambled back to his chair while some of the students snickered at him. Hermione had seen the same thing happen many times when it came to transfiguring rats into goblets, Ron's spell wasn't strong enough and although the rat turned into a goblet, it was still retained it's consciousness and was able to move around. With a sigh Hermione turned her attention back to her essay which was finally finished, she neatly set the parchment paper aside and set her quill flat on her desk, she looked down at her hands which were blotched with ink, and she remembered sourly that those hands were once coated with fire.

Hermione stayed true to her word when she pledged to never used that mysterious power in her ever again and so far it was turning out to be a painful experience. She couldn't eat, she couldn't preform magic as well as before, and she was always exhausted from trying to repress it. She felt pain in her heart where it seemed that magic remained restless, and it felt like it was trying to escape her mental hold on it like a crazed animal.

"Students, your time is up. Please leave all of your materials on your desk and exit the classroom, go directly to your dormitories until further notice." Professor McGonagall called.

Hermione got up from her desk and waited for Harry, Ron, and Neville to join her before she left the classroom. Their faces shared the same grim look as they approached her and they all swept out of the classroom as a group, when they got outside they remained silent and looked on at their classmates who were letting out cheers of joy as exam week came to an end. In that moment they all gave each other a look that they had been sharing for the past two months,

Harry offered a look of despair that was caused by the knowledge that two lives would be sacrificed to save his own. Headmaster Dumbledore was forced to destroy the Philosopher's stone which was the only thing that was keeping a very old Nicholas Flamel and his beloved wife alive. It was a sacrifice that Harry appreciated but it still haunted his thoughts and he couldn't help but wonder if this was just the start of a very long list of people who would die protecting the boy-who-lived.

Ron was particularity traumatized when he heard his best friend being attacked by Professor Quirrell behind locked doors, he punched and kicked at the wooden door until his knuckles were slick with blood and until his feet felt sore underneath his shoes. He wished Harry had waited for him to recover from his dazed state before entering the room to retrieve the Philosopher's stone, but his friend went ahead of him and the doors locked behind him, Ron didn't know how to preform the Alohomora spell so he was forced to listen to Harry's and Quirrell's screams. When the screaming finally stopped Ron waited for Harry to burst from the doors with the stone in hand, instead Snape burst into the room and brushed past Ron then easily preformed the spell which flung the doors open with a soft click. Moments later he emerged with a battered looking Harry in his arms, he was unconscious and Ron immediately went to Snapes side who silently led them out of the room and to the infirmary. He let Harry down that day and his friend's screams still echoed in his mind.

Neville always had guilt plastered on his face since the incident, his reaction to the Devil's snare was uncalled for, especially when he knew exactly how to deal with it. He went as far as to ask Professor Sprout to provide him with a young Devil's snare that he may be responsible for, she was of course baffled by his request, but after his numerous pleas she gave in and set aside a young Devil's snare just for him in a secluded part of her greenhouse. Neville took care of the plant ever since in attempt to eventually conquer his fears so that he may never freak out in a situation concerning herbology ever again.

Hermione felt loss and pain from the incident and while the boys would never know- it was all because of her Professor and the raging magic within her.

It was a lot to handle for their first year and as they silently retreated to the Gryffindor tower they secretly felt relief as the year had finally come to an end.

* * *

 **I don't think another chapter was really necessary for the first year, but if you think their should be another one let me know. Reviews are always appreciated and your support means everything to me. Thank you for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Year two! I'm so excited to get started on this year and I'm ready to reveal some secrets about Hermione's magic! Don't expect a Snape chapter for a while, these first few chapters will all be Hermione.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

* * *

One usually doesn't realize their flaws until it is pointed out to them, it creates a feeling of unease and self consciousness that never truly goes away, and to find them at a young age is simply haunting. During the summer after her first year at Hogwarts, Hermione had her flaws pointed out and used against her for three months straight by her class mates at summer school.

Summer school was what Hermione's parents thought was a brilliant idea because they were afraid Hermione wasn't getting a quality education at Hogwarts. Sure, their daughter said that she was at the top of her class for just about every subject, but none of the subjects at Hogwarts included reading, history, science, or any other traditional subject taught at a muggle school. So Hermione was dropped off at summer school everyday until the last week of summer and every one of those days Hermione found herself being tormented by the other kids.

At that summer class Hermione learned three things: she had buck teeth, weird hair, and she looked like a gross skeleton. The whole class enjoyed pointing it out, they pinched at her skin, which pulled tight over her bones, they tugged at her hair and laughed when it fell out in their fingers, and they shoved pencils in their mouth to mock her large front teeth. Before that class she barely even noticed those things about herself, but now Hermione couldn't even face a mirror without hearing their taunts drill through her head. The pain she felt was unbearable, especially with the ache of keeping her magic trapped in her heart still present. Sometimes she wished to let her magic go on the taunting students, but she would never want to risk expulsion. Hermione even sent a few owls out to Ron asking how he could keep his magic at bay for so long, he advised to stop thinking about it and the pain would go away. But the pain was so strong it was impossible to ignore.

Once September finally rolled around Hermione was actually relieved to return to the magical school, despite what waited for her there. One hateful potions teacher was nothing compared to the kids at the summer school, and the house rivalry made sure that everyone got teased once and a while, meaning that Hermione would cease to be the target. Her parents eagerly reentered the magical world and bought all of her supplies at Diagon Alley, on the way around the magical shopping area they asked her several questions about the classes she was taking, and the whole time Hermione kept her head duct away from prying eyes, she didn't want to be the only girl with muggle parents walking around. Upon getting her robes for the year, a woman had he stand on a weight to make proper measurements, she tsked loudly and commented on how tiny she was several times.

"You should really eat some sweet rolls my lovely girl, a little bit of weight looks good on anyone." She said lightly.

Hermione felt embarrassed but stayed quiet she rubbed her arms and winced at the knobby bones of her elbow, she was always cold now and happily threw on her robes as soon as she got them. Thankfully, she didn't run into her friends while she was shopping, but a different story would be said as soon as she would board the Hogwarts Express. As soon as her parents had to drop her off at the station they were teary eyed and reluctant to let her go, they even offered to pay for the most expensive school in London to get her to stay. Hermione refused and charged into Kings Cross station, with her things in tow.

When the plain looking brick wall leading to platform 9 ¾ came into view, Hermione came to a slow stop and settled herself and her supplies in front of it. Things were going to be different at Hogwarts, she had friends there, and they didn't care about her body, teeth, or hair. At least she hoped that they didn't, and she hoped that they would protect her from those who wished to tease her. But there was also Professor Snape, maybe he still hated her and maybe she would never be something as special as his apprentice. It hurt to think about and the pain reminded her of the magic in her that she would have to fight to keep down, because maybe if she kept it down her Professor would forgive her. With a heaving sigh Hermione held her head high and stepped through the wall into platform 9 ¾.

* * *

"What do you mean they never made it on the train?" Hermione demanded, Neville sat across from her in their train cabin with his toad Trevor clasped in his clumsy hands.

"T-they never showed up. I think they missed it. Oh shoot." Neville sighed when Trevor squirmed out of his grip and hopped out of the cabin and into the hallway, he stared after the animal sadly as it disappeared out of view. "I swear that toad hates me."

"Well I would too if you just let me hop around in a train full of stomping feet." Hermione commented. "And thank you for showing so much concern for your friends."

"Well what are we supposed to do? The train has already left and we can't- nor do I want to, get off." Neville explained. "Relax Hermione and wait for them to come to us."

"You realize that we're still talking about your friends and not your toad right?" Hermione grumbled.

"Yes, and I would never expect that toad to magically come back to me." Neville said with a smile.

"Hello Neville I think I've found your little toad. He has a lot of weezles flying around his head, you should have that checked out." Came a whimsy voice. It belonged to Ravenclaw's most rejected student, Luna Lovegood. The girl was gorgeous with long platinum hair and wide pale blue eyes, she had fair skin and a kind smile, but the girl had a peculiar nature brought on by a peculiar family. Her father owned the Quibbler, which had weird and tacky information in it and Luna was basically a walking version of the newspaper.

"Oh dear Merlin." Neville turned a vibrant shade of purple and grabbed Trevor from Luna's hands, she smiled at him and waved goodbye at the toad.

"Hello Luna, um thanks for grabbing his toad. My name is Hermione Granger." Hermione stuck out her hand, which Luna eagerly grabbed, Hermione noticed that the girl was currently wearing a lot of green.

"I've heard a lot about you from Neville, he said that you are the smart one of the group. I sure wish he would say stuff like that about me." Luna said wistfully.

"They don't exist!" Neville blurted out, his face was now an angry red. Hermione turned to Neville in shock, but Luna just looked on lamely. "Weezles. Don't. Exist."

"Neville!" Hermione hissed.

"Oh don't worry Hermione, we've been going on like this all summer. He'll come around one day." Luna explained, she twisted a lock of her hair around her finger and used her other hand to check that her wand was safely stuck behind her ear, which had red beets hanging from them as earrings.

"I will not!" Neville called.

"We'll see, but for now I think I'll leave you to Hermione and your friends flying outside of the window. Have a pleasant trip." Luna turned away and wandered out of sight, both Neville and Hermione looked at each other in confusion, then turned to look outside the window where Harry and Ron were currently driving. Ron looked like he might be crying and Harry was flailing his arms like crazy.

"Are Harry and Ron flying a car right now?" Hermione asked

"I believe they are." Neville said slowly, he crossed his arms and gave Hermione a triumphant grin. "See, I told you they would come to us."

"Yeah, and your toad is gone again."

"Shoot."

* * *

After arriving to the school the night was relatively uneventful, the Great Hall was decorated in the traditional floating candles, the ceiling displayed a clear night sky that was perfect except for a lone feather that was suspended next to Orion's Belt. Hermione sat next to Neville that night and they both awaited their friends that apparently chose to travel via uncontrollable flying car that year. Hermione brought her attention to the front of the Great Hall where Albus Dumbledore called for complete silence, he wore very vibrant yellow robes that resembled the lemon drop candies he loved so much and his outfit brought all of the attention to him immediately. As everyone looked on at the head master while he addressed the first years, Ginny Weasley being one of them, Hermione found herself letting her eyes wander towards the potions master seat.

Her throat knotted up when she met the raven eyes of Severus Snape, he was frowning and he seemed to be searching for someone. Did he know how badly he hurt her the year before? Did he care? Was he afraid of the magic inside of her, the magic that seemed to soar as soon as she saw him?

"Hermione they're here!" Neville whispered excitedly, Hermione turned to her left and watched as her two friends scrambled quietly over to their spot of the Gryffindor table. Neville pointed up at the ceiling as soon as the boys sat down, they boy tilted their heads where he was pointing and laughed in glee.

"We just trashed my father's car." Ron whispered quietly. "It was horrible, Harry and I almost died."

"Why do you even have a car?" Neville asked quietly.

"Because my dad is obsessed with muggles, and he wanted to have one, but the thing was so gross that he infused it with magic. It was a cool flying car until we crashed it into that giant moving tree thing." Ron explained.

"You crashed a car into the Whomping Willow? Are you both completely daft?" Hermione demanded.

"Yeah that tree was planted at Hogwarts over thirty years ago and it's extremely valuable!" Neville growled.

"I see where your loyalties lie, glad you value a tree over our lives." Harry said with a pout. "It whacked me in the legs a few times you know."

"My mum is going to kill me. She's going to yell at me for ten hour straight, kill me, bring me back to life, and then kill me again." Ron whimpered.

"Well this was a splendid start to the year." Harry muttered.

"Yeah well hopefully that's the most excitement we'll see all year." Neville said, he turned his attention to the front of the room, where first years were being sorted.

"I highly doubt it." Hermione murmured, she looked back at the professor's at the front of the hall and noticed that Professor Snape had left, she let out a sigh and rested her head on the table as the first years made their grand entrance into Hogwarts.

* * *

 **Alright Hermione has got some issues going on, and that will be the focus of this year in particular. So tell me what you think about this chapter and how did you like that Luna introduction, she may make an appearance in later chapters. Also good news to all Draco fans, he gets his intro in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello dedicated reader! I apologize for the late update, graduating from high school has made my life rather complicated and busy for the past few weeks. I spared enough time to get this chapter done and although it is rather short I hope you all still enjoy it. As promised Draco will be introduced in the most suiting way that I could think of!**

 **Also as many of you pointed out I accidentally put Luna in the wrong year, but I promise her role in the story will make up for the mistake.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

Fearing professor Snape's class was a new thing for Hermione, usually she felt an extraordinary amount of eagerness before his class, but now her stomach twisted itself into knots as she tried to focus on her new defense against the dark arts teacher- Gilderoy Lockhart. Hermione heard about his work when she was a first year and seeing him in real life was an absolute thrill, she waited patiently while he spoke about himself, her quill was set against parchment paper in preparation for his lesson. Next to her Ron snored lightly, his mouth hung open and a small trail of drool ran down his lightly freckled face, the boy had fallen asleep ten minutes into class- Hermione imagined he was dreaming about dinner time in the great hall. Harry and Neville were seated a couple of desks behind Hermione, they chattered lightly and, like most of the other students in the class, pointed at the goofy looking animal seated in front of the room.

It resembled a type of beaver with large teeth, fluffy brown fur, and small beady eyes, but it had a small horn protruding from the top of its head. Hermione didn't know what it was and felt relatively disappointed that she couldn't identify it, even after she spent long nights reading several books on magical beasts. Next to her desk a blonde boy with light blue eyes dressed in robes with Slytherin accents nudged his heavy set Slytherin companion and commented loudly.

"It looks rather familiar, doesn't it Crabbe?" He spat the words and grinned wickedly at Crabbe, who glanced around the room in confusion.

"No, I can't say it does." He answered lamely, he winced when the blonde boy glared at him.

"It looks like Granger." The boy said with a grin. Hermione inadvertently pressed her quill on the parchment paper and dragged a line along its surface, she gasped slightly and felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment.

"Draco enough chit chat over there, I'm telling an interesting story about myself." Professor Lockhart warned.

Hermione flicked her hair over her shoulder and let it shield her face from Draco's view, her eyes burned as she scrambled to retrieve a new piece of parchment paper. She tried to ignore it, but the giggles of many Syltherin students started flooding the classroom.

"I know funny story right? I mean some wizards are simply daft when it comes to the potion making process..." Lockhart continued, he was clearly oblivious as to why the Slytherins were laughing and he took the giggles as a cue to start yet another story.

"I mean she has the same teeth as that thing, they could twins!" Draco said excitedly, laughter erupted throughout the room and Ron finally woke up, he looked around the room in confusion then at Hermione. His eyebrows drew together in concern.

"You okay 'Mione" He asked quietly.

Hermione drew her tongue over her large front teeth and felt her eyes start to burn, she had her head turned away from Draco, but she could practically feel the smile that was plastered on his face. Her knuckles turned white as she tightened her hold on her quill. It was nearly impossible to fake a smile when she answered. "Yeah of course, I'm just waiting for professor Lockhart to stop talking about himself."

"Oh, is he still going on?" Ron sighed, he dropped his head on the desk and allowed his eyes to flutter shut once again. Hermione glanced behind her and saw that both Neville and Harry had their heads down on their desk too, she was grateful that they hadn't heard what Draco said. The last thing any of them needed was detention for fighting with Draco on the first day of classes. Last year they were lucky if they lasted the week without either Harry or Ron stuck serving detention for fighting with a Slytherin.

Hermione spared a glance over in Draco's direction, he turned to her at the same moment and his face pulled into a sneer. "How does it feel to look like a filthy rodent Granger?" This time he said it low enough so the rest of the class wouldn't hear, but it hurt all the same.

Hermione turned her face away from him and hung her head, she let her hair fall in her face like a curtain. She barely noticed when Lockhart finally addressed the small animal on his desk.

"You see this little guy was just here when I moved into this classroom, I'm not entirely sure what it is and it doesn't do much, but I figured one of the scholars amongst us could tell me the name of this magnificent creature." Professor Lockhart approached the small animal and prodded it in its side, the professor looked out at the classroom and smiled at the one hand that flung up in the air.

"Yes young Mr. Malfoy, perhaps you can solve this mystery."

"I heard that it's called a Granger." Hermione felt the blood drain from her face as all eyes of the classroom stared directly at her, waiting for some sort of reaction. She weighed her options: she could stay quiet and deal with the embarrassment, wake up Ron to defend her and look weak, or she could tell Draco to shut it. She finally set her quill down and bowed her head in shame, she said nothing and closed her eyes.

"I heard they come from the muggle world and are a type of rodent. You should get rid of it now or the whole castle will be infested with the things." Draco continued, slowly the class started to giggle at the joke, even some of the Gryffindors. Ron woke up once more from his nap, he nudged Hermione and whispered.

"What is everyone laughing at?"

"The animal on the desk." Hermione whispered back, Ron tilted his head and wiped drool off of his face with the back of his sleeve.

"It's not really that funny." He grumbled.

"Thank you Draco for solving out little animal mystery. I would have never guessed that it was called a Granger, or that it originated in the muggle world." Professor Lockhart exclaimed.

Hermione withheld a groan when Ron looked at the animal in confusion, then at Draco with pure rage.

"What are you trying to get at Malfoy?" He barked, Draco didn't even spare him a glance and shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not my fault that you and the rest of your family associate with scum like her, she's vermin by blood and apparently also by looks." Draco sneered, Ron's face turned a dangerous shade of red when he shot up from his seat and whipped out his wand, he pointed it at Malfoy and prepared to shout out a spell but was stopped by professor Lockhart's yell.

"You will put that wand down right now Mr. Weasley!"

The entire class started chattering excitedly, and Harry and Neville finally woke up from their naps, both of them looked around in confusion, then immediately glared at Draco. Hermione was actually quite satisfied at how alarmed Draco looked, but was disappointed when professor Lockhart administered Ron three days of detention.

"You can read as many books as you want Granger, but you'll never be more than just a mistake and a waste in our world." Draco said, he gathered his things and got up from his seat just as the bell rang, the rest of the Slytherin students followed after him, most of them sending wicked smiles in her direction, others sent her nasty looks. Harry and Neville hurried over to her desk and asked her why Ron was being yelled at by professor Lockhart, when she told them what happened they both wore faces of anger and voiced their hate for Draco.

Before they all left Hermione spared one last look over at the creature sitting still on the desk, perhaps she did look a little like the animal, and maybe she was useless like it too. It was a painful thought and as they made their slow journey to potions class Hermione felt tears slip from her eyes, she wiped them away from her face before the boys could notice, and she silently wondered if she would have had a better life without magic at all.

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 **As I mentioned before, this year is going to bring Hermione down to a low point so the next few chapters may get depressing. Did you all like the Draco intro? Also expect a darker take on the chamber of secrets, which is coming at you in the next chapter. Remember to leave a review because they are what I practically live off of.**


	12. Chapter 12

**The author has returned! I apologize for the very long wait for this update, but hopefully I will be able to update faster in the future. This chapter is a little bit short, but I hope you all still like it. Also content warning: If you are suffering from an eating disorder this material may be uncomfortable to read, all the material before the appointment with Madam Pomfrey is fine, after that I would advise to skip to the end. I apologize to those who read the material before I put up the warning, it won't happen again in the future.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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Madam Pomfrey always attempted to show a cheery face to nervous students during wellness check day, because many students had a distinct fear that she may announce that they were dying from an incurable illness. Hermione was fine with doctors, even in the muggle world where they distributed shots instead of using oral tonics, and poked at teeth with metal objects. As she waited patiently for her turn with the nurse she clasped her hands together and withheld a giggle as professor McGonagall snapped at the rowdy boys that constantly messed up their line.

"Make a _line_ boys, if you don't I am perfectly okay with deducting points from my own house." She huffed and glared at the Gryffindor boys who begrudgingly stepped in place.

"The boys in your house are far more hyper than the ones in mine. I wonder if they might have a type of snookle sleeping in their beds." A whimsy voice observed, Hermione glanced over her shoulder and eyed Luna Lovegood in confusion, she turned around completely and faced the odd girl.

"Luna what are you doing here? Ravenclaw already had their checkups this morning."

"Well you see I woke up this morning and found that all my clothes were missing, and I spent all morning trying to find them. I believe my classmates were trying to play another hide and seek game with me, though this time it was poorly timed." She explained, though she still wasn't dressed in uniform, instead she wore yellow jeans and a bright pink shirt.

"I don't think they were playing a game with you Luna." Hermione explained carefully. "They're being mean."

Luna nodded slightly and her giant blue eyes dropped with sadness. "I know, but if I think of it like a game it's easier to handle." Hermione silently thought about Draco's taunts, perhaps she should play them off as a joke too.

"How did you find your clothes?" Hermione felt relief when happiness surged back into the witch's face.

"Oh a very kind elf delivered them to me, a student who goes to this school found them. I think the elf said his name was Ro-"

"Hermione Granger!" Madam Pomfrey called.

"Oh, sorry Luna, I have to go." Hermione smiled apologetically at the girl and headed towards the waiting nurse.

"Don't forget to check for weezles!" Luna called.

Across the room Neville turned a bright shade of red and muttered "They don't exist." under his breath.

* * *

"All right Miss Granger, step right in front of me and stand as still as possible." Madam Pomfrey instructed, Hermione did so and gazed in wonder as the nurse waved her wand in front of Hermione, she muttered a few incantations and then politely smiled at her. She placed her wand on the table next to her and retrieved a small file with Hermione's name scribbled on the front.

"Miss Granger it appears that you are twenty pounds underweight. Have you been eating all of the meals provided for you?" She asked, her face lost it's smile and now looked fully concerned. Hermione shuffled awkwardly in her place and she bit her lip, fear flickered uncomfortably in her chest. She hadn't really had an appetite since the incident that happened last year, and she should have answered no.

"Yes."

"Okay, well have you been feeling stressed?"

 _Yes_

"No, not at all."

"Do people make fun of your weight or appearance?"

 _Every day_

"No."

"Have you been practicing magic on a regular basis?"

 _Depends on which magic you're talking about, one is useless and the other is killing me on the inside._

"Of course."

"Okay, but I still need you to gain some weight. I'll have a potion sent up to your room that you will take with every meal, it will help you put on some pounds. When you reach a healthy weight you may stop taking it." Madam Pomfrey explained. "Everything else looks fine and if you ever need to talk about anything that may be bothering you, I'm here."

Hermione nodded and quickly slowly made her exit from the room.

* * *

That night Hermione stood in front of the full body mirror that Lavander placed in their dorm bathroom. "You always have to check the mirror to see if you look nice enough to leave the room." Lavander explained when she placed it up on the wall. "My mother always said that us girls have to look nice if we want other people to like us."

Hermione frowned at the memory at and discarded her robes, letting them fall on the tiled floor. She shuddered as she then removed the rest of her clothes, tears started to roll down her eyes as she stared at the skeletal creature reflected back at her. Skin pulled tight over bones, limbs seemed so thin that a single hit may shatter them. Looking at herself Hermione started to understand why people like Draco Malfoy laughed at her, and why the students tended to laugh along with him.

The magic inside her heart burned as she let out a sob and turned away from the mirror, she hugged her arms around herself and slouched down to the cold floor. She could have stayed there forever, but someone pounded on the door to the bathroom and they started calling her name.

"What's wrong?" Hermione called, she tried to keep her voice as steady as possible.

"Something terrible has happened, you need to get out here now!" The voice cried, Hermione could tell the girl on the opposite side of the door had been crying, so she jumped up and threw on her clothes. When she got out of the bathroom she met the teary eyed face of Parvati Patil.

"Is everyone okay?" Hermione demanded, the young witch shook her head and started sobbing uncontrollably.

"A-a student has been k-killed."

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 **Dun, Dunn, Dunnn! Any guesses as to who died? Any comments on Hermione's condition? I know this is sensitive material, but things like bullying can cause all of Hermione's issues. Of course that bit of magic she's holding back is doing a lot of damage too (more on her magic coming at you in later chapters.). Did anyone catch the small reference I made in this chapter? Let me know! Thank you for reading.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello dedicated readers! As an apology for taking forever to update I've decided to do multiple updates this week! Now this chapter contains violence and death so if you're not comfortable with reading that stuff there's lines in the chapter to indicate where it begins and ends. Many thanks to my reviewers, favors, and followers and a MASSIVE shout out to 1les93 who added me to their sevmione community!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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A young boy with mousy brown hair walked excitedly along the dark hallways of Hogwarts, it was nighttime and far past curfew, but he wasn't scared of being caught. He never got caught breaking the rules. He was small and quiet, and not even the portraits on the walls woke to the sound of his feet tapping silently on the stone floors of the castle. The moon outside filtered lightly through the windows which made the castle glow a rather dull purple color, this caused the boy to slow down as he looked around his surroundings with silent appreciation. It was a shame that Hogwarts had such an early curfew, especially if it meant students had to miss extraordinary sights like this.

Although the school did look enchanting, he wasn't out of his dorm for sight seeing. No, he was out breaking the rules for a much greater and noble purpose, and that was to help Harry Potter with his detention. Professor Lockhart had been wrong to issue the wizard detention, the whole story of how he defended his friend Hermione Granger and got in trouble for it ran through the Gryffindor house like wildfire. Of course the young wizard wandering the halls took this as a direct offense, because Harry Potter was his hero, and in order to be like him he had to think and act like him. Harry Potter would probably try to help his friends with their detention, and he wouldn't be afraid to break curfew to do so. Was Harry Potter afraid of anything? Probably not.

Maybe if he could just help Harry Potter with his detention, his hero might finally notice him and they could actually become friends. The thought of it caused him to pick up his pace, and as he rounded a corner near the girl's bathroom he saw something that made his blood run cold.

In front of the boy a massive green snake towered over a still Mrs. Norris, it's eyes were closed, and it's face was pulled into a permanent and vile smile. The boy withheld a gasp as Mrs. Norris fell stiffly on her side, and the thought that the cat might actually be dead sent his mind into complete panic. He took a step back and tried to maintain a scream that was starting to bubble up in his throat, he had to get back to the dorm, but would anyone believe that he saw a giant snake kill Mrs. Norris?

* * *

Colin Creevey probably wouldn't have died that night if he had left without trying to take a picture of the basilisk. His shaky hands fumbled for his camera and when he snapped a picture of the beast, the flash alerted the creature of his presence. Colin tried to run, but the basilisk was far more faster than him and caught him at the leg, sharp teeth severing through muscle and bone like butter. He let out a scream and fell to the ground, his beloved camera flew out of his hands and bounced harshly against the stone floor. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks as he instinctively reached down and felt the bloody stump of his leg, pain seared through his body and he let out another scream, and his pants went dark from the blood that was soaking into the material. Colin knew that he didn't have long because he felt himself starting to become faint and in a final effort to save himself he fumbled at the wand sitting in his pants pocket, the wand felt slippery in his bloody hands. He took in a deep breath and agonizingly forced himself to flip onto his back to face his attacker and pointed his wand at the crazed beast. It's eyes were closed and it's mouth hung open revealing rows of blood stained teeth, it's rotted breath fluttered up his nose and caressed his cheeks, and it's scaled tail flicked against the floor. Not a single spell that could have helped him crossed his mind so he let out a sob and let his wand fall from his hand, and thought about how he would never be friends with Harry Potter, or more importantly, how he would never see his family again. Colin just started to hyperventilate when the snake finally opened its bright yellow eyes, killing the young first year instantly.

* * *

Parvati Patil barely held it together as she broke the news to Hermione, apparently Harry found Colin's body just minutes after his death, and Filch found Harry cradling the boy in his arms shortly after. Hours later Harry arrived to the dorm and the news spread like wildfire, Ron and Neville pulled Harry into their room to protect him from the hordes of students who demanded to know the whole story.

Hermione felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she thought about the innocent young boy who loved to take pictures wherever he went, and she silently wondered why the he was out after curfew in the first place. More importantly she wondered what beast killed Colin Creevey, and what the staff was doing to find it.

Hermione gave Parvati a quick hug before leaving her dorm, the chatter of horrified students filled her ears as she approached the common room, but she kept her head down and retreated to the boy's dormitories. She knocked on the door to Harry's room, from the other side she heard Ron yell something along the lines of "bugger off".

"Ron it's me, now please open the door!" Hermione called, she waited a moment before the door cracked open a little bit revealing only Ron's teary eyed face.

"Hermione what are you doing here? This is the _boy's_ dormitory, _girls_ aren't allowed in here." Ron hissed.

"Ronald Weasley open this door right now or I swear I'll hex you." Hermione growled, Ron went pale and slowly opened the door. When Hermione entered she ignored the absolute chaos the room was in and darted to Harry, who had his head hung low, his black hair covered his face like a curtain. He was sitting on the corner of his bed and had the blankets clutched in his fists, Neville sat next to him, a far away look donned his tear streaked face. Hermione sat on the other side of Harry and gently squeezed his shoulder, the boy shuddered under her touch and a sob escaped his mouth.

"All he wanted to do was be my friend Hermione." He cried, he grabbed Hermione's free hand and squeezed. "I never gave him a chance."

After that no words were said, all four of them silently dealt with their grief in their own way. However they all made a silent oath, and that was to find the thing that killed Colin Creevey and avenge his death.

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 **Yes, I killed off Colin Creevey before I even mentioned his existence in previous chapters, but his death will spark a fire in all of our little heroes that will shape their character as they grow up. More Hermione in the next chapter, and I know you all miss professor Snape and I promise he will make an appearance in later chapters. Please take some time to leave me a review, they keep me going.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello readers! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and if you do please leave a review! Also if you're a fan of my writing and HG/SS check out the story Acceptance, I'm writing it out for 1les93 who came up with the original story. I've started a poll about Luna, which basically asks if I should leave her as a second year or replace chapter 10 and make her a first year. I'll close the poll sometime next week so go to my profile if you wish to vote on the subject. Also if you're a Dumbledore fan, you may not like this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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Parents send their children under the impression that eventually, after the school year has come to an end, they would be able to bring their kids home. The Creevey family would bring Colin home, only this time it would just be his body, sealed tight in a smoky gray coffin provided by the school. Students around the school spread rumors about what killed Colin and most of them said his name without sorrow, because no one really knew Colin, and only now that he was dead it seemed that everyone was his best friend. Some students said he died from a giant furry beast that patrols the hallways at night, others theorized that Colin was experimenting with a spell that caused the accidental amputation of his leg, and all of them chattered about his camera. Colin took pictures of everything, whether it be as simple as a blade of grass saturated in morning dew, or as advanced as a quidditch player soaring through the air in the middle of a game. Anyone with common sense would know that Colin would have taken a picture of his attacker before he died and it was rather convenient for both the killer and the school that it was currently no where to be found.

Such a curious and tragic event created a tense atmosphere as students piled into the great hall for a speech that Headmaster Dumbledore prepared in Colin's honor, Syltherin students sneered at the Gryffindor banners hanging from the walls, Gryffindors looked as if they were prepared to protest, Hufflepuffs stared at the staff with curiosity in their eyes, and Ravenclaws bowed their heads in defeat for not being able to identify the killer themselves. As the houses settled into their seats Dumbledore approached his podium and looked down at his students with a grave look in his eyes, his hands clutched tightly at the side of the podium and as Hermione sat in her seat she could see him nervously scraping his nails against its surface. Professor McGonagall stood closely behind him, a troubled look stuck on her face. She was taking Colin's death harder than anyone, as head of her house she felt that it was her responsibility to keep the boy safe, therefore she was at fault for his death. Professor Snape was furthest away from Dumbledore, as always his eyes were averted away from the students, sometimes Hermione thought that he did it just to prevent making eye contact with her. Detention days with him suddenly felt like it happened years ago. Her heart started to ache.

Beside her Harry trembled, ever since Colin died he'd been having nightmares and wasn't getting much sleep. Hermione wrapped her hand around his, which he squeezed in response, his usually bright green eyes were dull with pain. Ron offered less comforting words to Harry than everyone else, his bond with Harry had grown so strong that his presence alone calmed him down. Neville had grown quiet over the past few days, no one knew exactly how he was feeling, but the constant vacant stare told Hermione that he wasn't taking Colin's death very well. Hermione felt sad for the death of a young boy, even if she didn't know him well, but the sadness didn't consumer like it did for everyone else. She was more angry about his death, and felt the need to march up to the headmaster and demand some sort of answer to the question that everyone has been asking. What killed Colin?

"As you all now know, Colin Creevey was found dead in our hallways three days ago." Dumbledore's voice boomed through the great hall, and every student fell silent. "I know you are all in grieving as Colin was a very bright boy, and a friend to all. His light and his presence will be terribly missed." His delivery of the speech was rather fractured, and he struggled to find something else to say. Silence overtook the great hall as Dumbledore stared at his students. "Madam Pomfrey is a very skilled grief counselor, so those who were close to Colin should see her immediately." Dumbledore nodded at that and silently stepped away from the podium. "You all may take the day off and resume class tomorrow."

No one got up from his seat after his dismissal, all of the students stayed glued to their seats as if waiting for the rest of the headmaster's speech. Slowly the students started talking amongst each other and two identical Gryffindors shot up from their seats.

"How did he die?" They shouted this in unison, both Fred and George Weasley looked out to their fellow Gryffindors. "We deserve to know, especially if he died in a hallway on school grounds. Are we safe from the thing that killed Colin? Should we even be here?" Fred declared, every Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff shouted out their approval of the statement.

"Mr. Weasleys you will leave this hall quietly or I will be forced to issue you both a suspension." Dumbledore shouted back. Suddenly the entire hall erupted in chaos, every student shouted out their own questions and jumped to their feet.

"What killed him?"

"Where is his camera?"

"Why haven't you found the thing that killed him yet?"

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore's shout echoed through the hall and students grabbed painfully at their ears, Hermione squeezed her eyes shut in pain as her ears started to ring, the magic inside of her swirled in response and Harry yanked his hand away from her. Knowing that their battle was lost, the students started to file out of the hall, as Harry walked beside Hermione he whispered in her ear.

"Your hand is burning Hermione." he hissed, she looked at him in confusion so he held up his hand, which was no a violent shade of red.

"I'm so sorry Harry." Hermione exclaimed, she looked down at her hands in confusion and disappointment.

"It's okay." Harry patted her on the shoulder with his uninjured hand and turned his heads towards Ron, and as they both excitedly talked about the twins Hermione clenched her hands together out of fear that they might hurt someone else one day.

"Hello rat." A voice sneered behind her, she whipped around and met the smug face of Draco Malfoy and his rather dumb followers Crabbe and Goyle. She stopped walking and watched in dismay as Harry, Ron, and Neville walked away, unintentionally leaving her behind. "Crabbe here has learned a little spell that we've been waiting to try out." Draco looked around him to make sure that they were completely alone, Hermione felt her heart pound as she took a step back.

"I'm leaving now." She announced, and as she turned to walk away Goyle caught her arm and held tight. Pain seared up her arm and her magic thrummed in response. She silently fought to contain it. "You're hurting me."

"Relax Granger, this will be over in just a second. Go ahead Crabbe." Draco smiled as Craig pulled out his wand, and as Hermione thrashed Crabbe recited his spell. Once he was done Hermione lost consciousness and dropped to the cold stone floor.

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 **Things get a little magical in the next chapter. Again, please review my story they really help me stay motivated to continue on. Thank you for reading, reviewing, following, and favoring! Don't forget to vote!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello readers! Now a lot of you have questions about this story and others have made certain requests. I get questions about Hermione's power and of course you all want more Snape and longer chapters. Well, you all are going to love this chapter. I suggest you snuggle up and pay attention, because this chapter is going to be huge, both literally and figuratively. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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Hermione woke up to the feeling of her head pounding, she ran her hands along the rough stone floor and pushed herself up on wobbly feet. She squinted her eyes at the hallway in front of her and resisted the urge to vomit as the whole room seemed to tilt, she grabbed at her head and inwardly groaned when she felt her hands brush against something unfamiliar tangled in with her massive curls.

" _Hello rat."_

She had ears. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment as she ran her hands along her face where she found that her teeth had grown down to her chin, she looked down at her feet and was relieved to see that they weren't paws. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stood alone in the hallway, humiliation swept over her as she blindly allowed her feet guide her to safety. She turned down various hallways until she approached and threw open a door, only her sobs could be heard as she staggered into the mostly empty classroom. She knew she made a mistake when met two furious ebony eyes staring at her from across the room. Professor Snape did not look pleased to see her.

"Miss Granger what do you think you're..." Hermione shrunk away from his booming voice, and that must have been when he saw the ears, because he trailed off and was fixated with her head. "You have ears." He stated slowly.

Hermione sniffled quietly and slowly stepped back towards the entrance of the classroom. "yes." Her voice trembled as she spoke, and she bumped into the wall behind her. "I'm sorry for interrupting your work professor." She whispered breathlessly, and with that she darted out of the classroom, and as she raced towards the medical wing she wished that the professor would have stopped her, she wished that he could have made the pain go away. But he didn't yell after her, and Hermione guessed that he didn't even get off of his chair in attempt to follow her. Professor Snape didn't care, and Hermione guessed he stopped caring a very long time ago.

As soon as she burst into the medical wing Madam Pomfrey captured her into a tight embrace and wiped the tears away from her face, her eyes sparkled with sympathy and she ordered Hermione to sit down on the nearest hospital bed.

"Who did this to you?" She demanded, Hermione noticed that she was so angry that her hands were trembling as she clutched at her wand. She'd never seen the witch this furious before.

"I can't remember." the lie stumbled out of Hermione's mouth and tasted bitter on her tongue, she wasn't used to withholding the truth, especially from someone like Madam Pomfrey. If Draco ever found out that she snitched on him he would probably do worse, and Hermione couldn't risk accidentally harming the boy with her magic, which was currently taking the form of fire. Hermione was really starting to miss when she was only able to levitate objects around a room.

"Miss Granger, things like this will keep on happening if you don't help me find the one who did this to you. You don't need to lie to me." Madam Pomfrey's voice was calm, and with a careful hand she started to wave at the ears on top of Hermione's head. She felt a tickling feeling wash over her ears and could feel them slowly shrinking and moving towards their proper place. Once Madam Pomfrey stopped waving her wand and reciting her spell, she placed her hands on her hips and quirked her eyebrow at Hermione.

"I know you'll probably never tell me who has done this to you, I had a student a long time ago that was a lot like you, and he never whispered a name to me. Of course I found out on my own, but without a complaint from the student I was unable to do anything." Sadness clouded Madam Pomfrey's eyes as she looked down at Hermione, and she suddenly wondered if that student meant a lot to the older witch. "I only ask that you remember that my space is always open to you, night or day."

"Of course." Hermione struggled to say this and winced as her large teeth pinched the skin on her chin.

"Ah let's take care of those now." Madam Pomfrey said with a smile, she squinted at the teeth and repeated the spell she used before. Hermione felt rather uncomfortable as her teeth seemed to slide back into her gums and was more than relieved when Madam Pomfrey was finished. The witch waved her wand once and said "Accio mirror." and after a few seconds the mirror flew right into her empty hand. Hermione admired the spell and silently remembered when she did something similar once in front of professor Snape last year when she was trying to get out of his classroom and dropped her textbook on the ground, then out of pure panic she somehow managed to summon the book back into her arms.

"Check to make sure that everything is back the way it used to be." Madam Pomfrey instructed, Hermione reached out and took the mirror from the witch's hand, when she looked into it she was relieved to have her regular ears back. However, when she smiled into the mirror she noticed that her front teeth were no longer large and obnoxious and they lined up perfectly with the rest of her straight and white teeth. Madam Pomfrey glanced over at her and smiled slightly. "Is everything okay?"

Hermione was on the verge of telling her to enlarge her teeth, before she was enrolled into the school her parents told her several times to let her teeth fix themselves naturally. But seeing how nice her teeth looked in the mirror made her look up at Madam Pomfrey with a smile. "Everything is perfect, thank you."

* * *

In order to teach students how to fend against an attacker, professor Lockhart established a dueling club that everyone in the school was required to attend. Once a week a lesson was held utilizing the space provided in the great hall, and while they usually separated the houses for the club, this week both Slytherin and Gryffindor attended it together. Hermione stuck close to Harry, Neville, and Ron, she clutched her wand tightly as Draco smirked at her from across the room- he hadn't tried anything since Crabbe turned her into a partial rat, but there was no saying as to what he would do today. Professor McGonagall transfigured a table into a proper dueling stage and urged her students to gather around it, Hermione was hesitant but the students behind her herded her forward. Even with a stage between them, she still felt uncomfortable facing Draco.

"Students! Settle down please." Professor McGonagall called, the witch stood beside both professor Lockhart and Professor Snape on the stage, she rolled her wand around thin fingers. Professor McGonagall always did so when she was about to offer a challenge to her students. Hermione felt her stomach flip.

"You have all done very well under my- our guidance." Professor Lockhart boasted, he waved his wand around for emphasis and winked at a giggling girl in the crowd. "We have decided that it's time for some of you to display the skills that you've learned over these short few weeks. So three students chosen by myself, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape will duel against us. The victor I choose will go against Professor McGonagall, the one Professor Snape Chooses will go against me, and the one Professor McGonagall chooses will go against Professor Snape." Chatter exploded through the students as Professor Lockhart spoke and Hermione felt the blood drain from her face as Professor McGonagall made direct contact with her and smiled.

 _Not me._

"I pick first because, well, this is _my_ club of course. I chose Harry Potter." Professor Lockhart bent down and reached for Harry's hand with a giant heave he hulled the boy on stage and wrapped an arm around him as if preparing for a photo op. Harry grimaced at the older man's touch and pulled away from his hold, Hermione could see him fiddling nervously with his wand.

"Draco." Professor Snape drawled, the blonde boy clamored up on the stage and grinned widely at his house, which all offered him approving cheers.

"I choose..." Professor McGonagall trailed off for a second and gave her house one last look over, when her eyes met Hermione's she tried to silently tell her not to pick her.

 _Please don't. Not today, not up against him._

"Hermione Granger."

"Go show them what you got 'mione!" Ron cheered, the rest of the class followed his call and Hermione hesitantly allowed Professor McGonagall to help her on to the stage. Though her class cheered her on as loud as humanly possible, the snickers of Slytherin students rang loudly in her ears, and anger bubbled up inside of her.

"Miss Granger, by random draw you will go first, followed by Mr. Malfoy, then Mr. Potter will go last." Professor Lockhart explained, he winked at Hermione and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "No need to be nervous Miss Granger, you'll do just fine."

Hermione wasn't convinced.

"Clear the stage please! All students please take a few steps away from the stage. No need for anyone to get hit by a rogue spell like last time." Professor McGonagall gave a meaningful look to Neville, who shied away from the stage and blushed a deep crimson color. Once the stage was clear it was just her and professor Snape, she glanced to look up at her teacher but he was paying too much attention to his ebony wand to notice her stare.

"You know how it's done, go to the center and bow, five full strides, then you duel. You may only use spells that we've been practicing with." Professor Lockhart called.

Hermione sucked in a breath and walked towards the center, Ron shouted out "Go 'Mione!" as she did so, and was shorty smacked in the back of the head by professor McGonagall after. Hermione suppressed a giggle and waited patiently for her potions teacher to meet her at the center, when he did she prepared to meet his eyes. It was customary for wizards to look each other in the eye before a duel, it was almost as important as bowing. Hermione imagined she must have looked pretty stupid in front of everyone, because while she stared up at him he huffed and only offered her a curt nod of his head. No bow, no eye contact, professor Snape just announced to everyone that he had no respect for her.

 _Look at me._

Her mind screamed those words and as professor lazily turned to walk away, she squeezed her wand in her hand and ignored the fire that started to burn throughout her body.

 _Look at me._

An entire year she has dealt with the same humiliating pain and it all started with him. Hermione sucked in a strangled breath as she started charging down the stage, her veins started to hum as she allowed the anger to pass through her. He allowed her to suffer, he watched as she slowly crumbled under the harsh words of her classmates, and he left her alone in a hospital when she needed him the most. A different thought filled her mind, and that's when her heart seemed to cave in on itself.

 _You left me._

Hermione spun around and blindly aimed her wand in the direction of her professor, she was vaguely aware of the tears that fell from her eyes as she shouted "Stupefy!"

Two spells collided at once, Hermione felt shock through her system as spell fought against spell, and almost as soon as they collided the entire room erupted in cheers. Hermione felt a familiar tug as she felt professor Snape's spell near closer to her, she gritted her teeth and pushed against his spell, stepping forward as she did so. Sweat beaded on her forehead and her fingers started to shake as she fended off her professor, she couldn't keep this up for much longer. So against her better judgment and against literally every rule that porofessor Lockhart ever established, she jerked her wand to the right, sending both hers and professor Snape's curse flying through the great hall. Shrieks erupted the hall as students dove out of the way, professor McGonagall herded them out of the way and shouted at the duelers. Professor Snape wasn't fazed by this and threw a jellylegs curse at Hermione, which she easily blocked with a shield. Hermione shouted out the disarming spell which he also blocked with ease. Everyone but the two duelers fell silent and the only sound that filled the room was the shouts of spells and the impact of spells to shields. While Hermione occasionally stumbled from the impact professor Snape simply walked through them like they were nothing. Hermione shouted one last curse before she realized that her mind was too scrambled to form another one, professor Snape must have known because a smile worked on to his face as he shielded the particularly weak spell, and the spell he murmured back at her was that of a first year. He was mocking her.

In that moment Hermione Granger snapped. When she whipped her wand out at professor Snape a massive jet of orange flames engulfed the stage and took on the form of a fiery lion, it's golden and orange mane shook as it stepped towards professor Snape, its giant paws left scorch marks on the stage. she was too angry to realize the terrorized screams that filled the room, and as she let the magic in her go, the flamed lion climbed higher. She got only see a little bit of her professor's face and as she stared at his shocked face she waited for just one bit of acknowledgment, before she got one, the lion struck forward. Hermione wasn't worried about the professor getting hurt, so she looked on with dead eyes as professor Snape released jets of enchanted water from his wand, and by the time the magnificent creature was extinguished Hermione was panting, her wand hung loosely at her side in defeat. Only then did she realize how silent the room was, and when she looked around both student and professor looked on at the duelers with astonished gazes, traces of their magic left some parts of the room charred, others donned patterns of spells that bounced around the room.

Hermione didn't spare professor Snape a single glance as she sheathed her wand up her sleeve and retreated off the stage, no one tried to stop her as she flung the doors of the great hall open and walked on wobbly legs out into the empty hallways. She turned a corner and grimaced as she stepped in water that was no doubt coming from the flooding girls bathroom, the uncomfortable feeling of wet socks made her bend over to take the things off. When she went to straighten up she tried to place her hand on a wall for support, but as she stuck her hand out all she felt was slick scales. Hermione whimpered as a feeling of magic rushed into her system that was stronger than anything she'd ever felt before, panic rendered her frozen and as the ripples in the puddle of water surrounding her feet settled, she slowly started to make out a very large fanged smile and two bugging yellow eyes.

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 **Was it worth the wait? I hope you all enjoyed this extended chapter, I may start doing all of my chapters this long, it all just depends on the feedback I get.**

 **As many of you have pointed out, this is a pretty intense story content wise, but if you take all the magic out it's actually realistic. I say this out of my own personal experience and with the knowledge that some people thrive off of making others miserable. Some people may be able to relate to what Hermione is going through, and I think it's important to let those people know that they are not alone. This is definitely her low point and when she wakes up things aren't going to automatically get better, but they will with the help of those around her. Now I won't spoil anything else, so leave a review and tell me your thoughts about the chapter. Thank you for reading!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello readers! Thank you so much for one hundred reviews! I never imagined that this story would gather so much support and I thank you all for it. Now I did have a small case of writers block but don't worry, it's been cured by "Wish I Knew You." by the Revivalists, and lots of coffee. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and if you do please leave me a review.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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 _Severus tried to control his rage as he shed light on the room which was covered in bits of fried devil's snare, those idiot kids were trying to get at the stone, and would likely get killed in the process. Of course they had to recruit Miss Granger, the only student bright enough to provide him with entertainment and a decent conversation. Severus whispered "Nox" and trudged over the various pieces of charred plant as he worked his way around the room, if they made it past the plant, they would be on their way to the key room, and if they got past that already… well the Weasley boy was skilled enough to complete a chess match so basically the stone was probably already in the possession of Mr. Potter, or someone else entirely. In the case that the stone was untouched after this, Severus was not volunteering to reset all of the puzzles. A figure came into view, it was huddled over a small body, Severus sprinted over to them and squinted against the light of Neville Longbottom's wand, he looked down at the very still body of Miss Granger, and collected the front of Neville's robes in his fist._

 _"Tell me what happened to Miss Granger immediately." Severus yelled, the boy tried to pull away from the professor, but his grip was tight.._

 _"The um.. I don't- Hermione-"_

 _"Tell me you useless boy!" The Professor hollered._

 _"She exploded, there was fire everywhere!" the boy cried, with a shove Severus released Neville and knelt by the unconscious girl. He placed his fingers on he wrist and suddenly the room seemed to spin and Severus felt everything. He felt the burn of fire in his veins, the excitement and fear, the panic. He yanked his hand away but the feeling was still there, though not as strong, which was probably because the girl was knocked out. His own magic felt different, like a dull portion of her magic was trapped within him and his own magic thrummed as it accepted the newcomers presence. His anger dissipated at the strange event, and he found himself struggling to leave the girl behind as he instructed Neville to wait with her while he went to retrieve the other boys._

 _As soon as the other two were safe he returned for the girl, and holding her in his arms made her every emotion flood his senses, her happiness made him feel happy. But at the same time he felt the pain that she would no doubt feel when she woke up, he felt the pain on his head where she likely hit her head, and his body felt like it was covered in burns. Severus secured a connection with the girl that he wasn't sure he wanted, and he hoped that because she was knocked out, the connection didn't go both ways. If it did the girl would be in danger, especially when he would have to return to Voldemort._

 _Severus felt it when the girl finally woke up, her confusion poked its way into his brain while he was in his quarters, which were across the entire school. As he made his way to the infirmary he also felt her happiness, and a headache made its way to his brain too. By the time he got there the boys were saying their goodbyes to Miss Granger, and as they left Severus entered the room._

" _Severus, it's so good to see you. Is something wrong?" Madam Pomfrey looked at him in confusion, and Severus rubbed his temples as the headache pounded in his brain._

" _I have to speak with the girl." Severus tried to stay calm, and felt bad when his words came out as a growl._

" _Be quick." The nurse huffed and backed away from Severus, who turned to see the girl sitting up in her bed. She was confused and anxious, and he didn't need a magical connection to tell him that._

 _"Miss Granger, welcome back." He didn't want to hint at the connection, so he tried to keep his voice steady. It was vital that he found out whether or not the connection went both ways, or if her unconscious state prevented it._

 _"Thank you Professor." Severus ignored the hope that invaded his mind._

 _"You understand that certain things happened yesterday that you must never tell your other housemates, correct?"_

 _"Yes sir." He found himself staring at the girl, even as a first year she was so powerful, the magic she emitted didn't lie._

 _"Something happened."_

 _"Yes." Severus felt his nerves weaken as he realized that she didn't share his connection at all, and he would need to keep it that way. The girl couldn't touch him, which meant that he would have to keep a distance, even if he didn't really want to. He had to keep her safe._

 _"Am I in trouble?" He felt the fear and avoided her gaze as he said quietly._

 _"No."_

 _"Okay."_

 _"I will see you in class tomorrow Miss Granger." Severus instantly felt the overpowering loss as he walked away, he didn't think it would get any worse._

 _However over the course of days he felt the sadness._

 _Over the course of weeks he felt despair._

 _Over the course of months he felt the pain._

 _As he stood in front of her to duel, he felt the anger._

* * *

It towered over him in its glory, a moving monument of flames and emotions that kissed his skin with searing pain. Gold and red molded its lithe body, giant paws strode towards him and charred the stage black, a flickering tail swayed as it stalked its prey. Its swirling main ruffled calmly compared to the inferno that was its body, and its face was clear and solid. It displayed only a fierce amount of sorrow in its eyes, and if such a creation could, it would probably be shedding tears as a product of its despair. Severus lowered his wand and felt feint as his legs threatened to give out from under him.

 _I feel your pain._

For months they both suffered, and there was no doubt that he was the reason as to why this beast had been conjured from Hermione Granger's wand, it was all his fault. He should have never laid a single hand on the girl all those months ago, if he hadn't so none of his actions would have been necessary and the girl wouldn't have been dying in front of everyone's eyes. Severus closed his eyes and let the feeling of sorrow wash over him, fire warmed his face as the lion inched closer.

Her anger was distracting, and his magic screamed at him with a wish for him to comfort the struggling girl. With a heavy hand he raised his wand and pointed it at the beast, it was too controlled to be fiendfyre, so it had to be something else. Or perhaps it was fiendfyre, and it would waste no time destroying him and the rest off the school to the ground. It leaned as if to pounce and Severus prepared to defend himself, but suddenly anger turned into defeat and the beast's form wavered. It did pounce at him, but he jetted charmed water from his wand to keep it at bay, of course it was ineffective and Severus started to panic.

 _It can't be fiendfyre._

But it was, and the creature only disappeared when Hermione's emotions took the form of a hollow nothingness, once the fire disappeared he was left staring at her. Her tears were stained with tears and her cheeks were smudged with particles of ash that floated up from the areas where her lion scorched the wooden surface of the stage. She looked around the room once and shuddered at their destruction, then without a single glance in his direction she sheathed her wand and hopped off the stage, students let out shocked gasps and scrambled out of her way as she exited the great hall, the doors slammed behind her.

"Severus..." Professor McGonagall broke the eerie silence that overtook the hall, her usually calm demeanor was shattered, and her eyes seemed to bug out of her head beside her Ron trembled under the tight grip she had on his shoulder. All eyes stared up at him as if waiting for an explanation, even Draco looked to him, shock rendered his face a ghostly white.

"Well I never taught you guys to do _that_." Professor Lockhart's idiotic comment broke the spell and all at once every student started chattering excitedly. Only Ron, Harry, and Neville seemed to maintain their silence, they all glared up at Severus with accusations written on their faces. Ron shrugged off McGonagall's hand and approached his friends, they all huddled close and whispered quietly amongst themselves, the booming sound of the other student's voices drowned out their conversation. All at once they nodded and swiftly made their way to exit the great hall, wands held tightly in their hands.

"Stop!" Severus's yell was but a whisper compared to the volume of the room, he huffed and jumped off the stage, students shrieked in surprise as he did so but he ignored them as he stormed towards the exit. As soon as sh went to push the doors open he felt a wave of fear cloud his brain, something was wrong. He shoved the doors open and stepped out to the empty hallway and allowed his magic to pull itself in the direction of the girl, he was relieved to see that she didn't go far.

That little bit of magic that tethered himself to the girl suddenly thrummed violently, and then it seemed as if it ripped itself from his chest. Severus fell to his knees at the loss and he clutched at the violent pain that seared his heart, his own magic felt like it was screaming. He struggled to get up and with one hand on his chest he hulled himself on wobbly feet, something happened to Hermione, something terrible. Shrieks suddenly filled the hallways and Severus half ran, half hobbled in the direction of the noise. He rounded a corner and located the screaming boys, who were all on their knees, tears running down their face as they pulled the frozen body of their friend close.

"Out of my way." Severus hissed he pushed the panicking boys aside and ignored their protests, water soaked his robes as he knelt next to Hermione. Her eyes were half shut, those glittering honey eyes barely there from under her eyelashes. Her body was frozen in a way that looked like she was trying to stand straight, her legs were slightly bent and her arm was angled as if she was using it as support. Severus brushed his hand along her wrist and felt that she was still alive and much like , she was petrified.

"She's going to be fine." Relief flooded his mind though his chest was still in pain, which would probably happen until she was revived. He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and used it to wipe the tears and ash from her face, then awkwardly gathered her in his arms.

"Follow me." Severus brushed past the shocked boys and lead them to Madam Pomfrey, they didn't ask any questions, and he didn't offer an answers. As soon as they got to the medical wing the witch let out a shocked gasp and tripped over to Hermione.

"Put her on the bed, and get those boys out of here." She instructed, Severus glanced at the boys once and they all nodded, Harry dropped Hermione's soaked socks on the ground before he retreated with the rest of them. The witch pulled the curtains shut and turned her attention to Severus.

"What happened?" Her voice was like steel, she turned her attention the girl and with a wave of her wand all the dirt and water on her uniform disappeared.

"I found her like this in the-"

"Don't play with me Severus." She growled. "You know what I'm talking about, being petrified is probably the best thing that has happened to this girl all year."

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"She's dying Severus, not figuratively, literally, and it all started when you left her last year." Madam Pomfrey pointed at him with her wand and she didn't care to hide the fury that was in her voice.

"She's dying..." Severus looked down at the girl and furrowed his brow. _Dying._

Madam Pomfrey sighed and nodded she carefully pulled down one of the sleeves of Hermione's shirt, revealing her collarbone, which pulled tight against skin. Her shoulders were the same, making her look like a skeleton.

"I can only do so much Severus, she's eating and drinking a potion to help her gain weight. But I don't think eating is the problem, such symptoms come when a magical being tries to repress his or her magic, but I don't see how that's possible when she's been using her magic all year." The witch explained, she looked helplessly at the girl.

"Professor Sprout is waiting to harvest the mandrakes, then when I get the potion done I'll fix this."Severus declared.

"How?" Madam Pomfrey whispered.

"Just trust me." Severus mumbled, he gave the girl one last glance before he silently left her, his heart ached as he got further and further away. Before she woke up Severus would have to find a way to rid of the connection, of course he could just complete the connection by simply touching her hand while she was awake, but then she would feel his pain which was something that only he deserved.

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 **So do you forgive Severus for ignoring Hermione? How do you feel about their incomplete connection? Let me know! Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored and followed this story, you are the ones that keep me going!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hello readers! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and if you like it leave me a review. I was so happy to read reviews voicing the opinions about Severus, and it tells me that he has A LOT to do before everyone forgives him! I've put a quote at the beginning of this chapter and I may add them to past chapters too, so look out for that.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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 _ **"I will try to fix you." -Coldplay**_

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A lazy haze of flickering light filtered into Severus' room, seeming to penetrate through the blinds he so desperately tried to keep shut. Alone he sat, his mind feeling vacant without the presence of Granger, and his focus annoyingly averted from his brewing.

 _She's dying._

Black eyes narrowed in frustration at his own blindness of the situation, of course he felt the constant prodding discomfort of pain coming from her, but he never imagined that she was hurting that bad. He stared around his room and winced at the books he left sloppily sprawled amongst his counters, bed, and chairs, none of them offered any knowledge about his situation. He could ask Albus, the old goat likely knew a thing or two about magical bonds, but he never cared much about his problems unless they involved Potter. Severus noted that the headmaster made no attempt to address the duel that occurred, and tried to control the amount of gossip surrounding Granger's current petrified state.

With a sigh he shuffled over to a desk containing his own personal notes a recipes, he opened a drawer and fished out leather bound journal. He flipped through the pages to ensure it was blank then retrieved a quill, in careful handwriting he labeled the journal "Granger" then flipped it open to the first page. He thought back to when the bond was first established, and how her being unconscious disrupted it from being shared between them. He doodled in a bulletin mark and scribbled next to it.

 _One way bond._

He frowned thought about the pain that he felt.

 _Can feel her emotions and magic._

Magic. The girl had peculiar magic, Severus flipped to the next page and wrote "MAGIC" at the top, he underlined it several times before thinking back to the first time she used wandless and non-verbal magic.

 _Can perform wandless and non-verbal magic with extraordinary ease._

Then of course there was the use of fiendfyre, but that may have been conjured because she was in an emotional state.

 _Magic reacts with her emotions._

Severus glared at that statement, all magic was performed with emotion. It would be impossible without it. He drew a thin line through the text. He didn't know much else about her magic, there was little that he could say about it. He resisted the urge to write a section about how completely impossible the girl was, even when she wasn't around. Instead he flipped to yet another page and guiltily scribbled down "Health".

 _Dying, possibly from lack of nutrients entering her system._

This however was likely not the case, as Poppy mentioned the girl was eating and was currently drinking a weight gain potion. Magical repression seemed impossible too, but he wrote it down anyway.

 _Magical repression._

A notion that he didn't quite understand since the girl was clearly utilizing her magic all year, even he himself tapped into the magic that was unintentionally stored in his brain. It was magnificent, his own magic felt slightly second to hers, though he would never admit such a thing. He thought back to the duel and set his quill down, her magic was quite lacking during the session, excluding the giant flaming lion of course. But the lion was unintentional, as was her incident when she dropped her books in front of him during their first year, and of course with the ingredient jar she dropped when she was fulfilling her detention with him.

 _Unintentional magic_

he noted that and huffed, it wasn't all unintentional, she knew exactly what she was doing when she was levitating ingredient jars while she thought he wasn't looking. He still didn't know whether or not exploding into a ball of fire that killed devil's snare was intentional or not, though it was starting to look like it was indeed on purpose.

Severus went to scratch the note away but paused, he closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint that lingering magic that belonged to Granger. It responded weakly and seeped through his veins, like honey was traveling through his body until it reached his finger tips. He had to call for this magic, it wasn't already present like his own magic was. His magic currently lay dormant, always there for him to use, and it was instantaneous. Her power was more slow and controlled, he thumbed back a page and tapped at the note he foolishly scribbled out.

 _Magic reacts with her emotions._

It only made sense that in times of need, such as when she was either angry or in a rush the magic would react at a fast, yet powerful rate. In down time, the magic would move at a leisurely pace, such as when she was simply levitating jars to get them on and off shelves. He rewrote the note, then flipped to the first page and begrudgingly listed another one.

 _Her power is slightly more powerful and fine tuned than mine._

So there was a possibility that she only occasionally used this magic, which would mean that the girl had two sets of magic. The one she used daily in class being the recessive strain, and the one she used to conjure something as complex as fiendfyre being the dominant one.

 _Two sets of magic._

Severus let his quill slide across the page as he searched for a reason as to why the little show off didn't use the power that she clearly knew was there. It didn't make a lick of sense. _Unless it all made sense._

As he recalled the girl had been underweight during her first year, and in attempt to help her he gave her snacks during detention, after that she seemed to look better. It probably wasn't because of the snacks. At that period of time she likely realized that she had two sets of magic, one being more exhilarating and apparently nurturing than the other. She likely used that magic, which contributed to her healthy weight gain, until they went to retrieve the philosopher's stone. There she used fire to combat the devil's snare, and when she woke up her professor abandoned her without explanation. Severus flipped to a clean page and achingly wrote down each word.

 _Miss Granger Stopped using her dominant magic, under the false assumption that her professor, whom she looked up to, abandoned her because of it. This has lead to alarming weight loss, depression, and an overall weakened state that could potentially lead to death if unattended to._

If he didn't fix this soon, he would have killed the only student who cared about him, and the only student he cared for.

Severus slammed the journal shut and pushed it towards his other journals, he scoffed when one of the journals slid out of place, he held it lightly in his hands and flipped it open. Pictures fluttered out of it, all of them inscribed with the year. Hogwarts didn't usually do yearbooks, only the seventh years received one large class picture, but the professors always participated in a "picture day" every year. Severus picked up the photos and gazed at them, all of the pictures looking exactly the same. Inside the journal one sentence was jaggedly scribbled across the front page.

 _I haven't aged in eight years._

He wrote that almost four years ago. He shook his head and shoved the pictures back in the journal, then placed it next to the Granger journal.

Severus pulled away from his desk and couldn't help but feel slightly satisfied, he knew enough now to prevent his student from dying, and that's all he cared about right now.

The door to his quarters creaked and he felt his wards being intruded, he yanked out his wand and spun around, he narrowed his eyes when he saw the scowling face of Albus in his doorway.

"Albus." He greeted him carefully, it was rare that the Headmaster set foot in his quarters, and he only did it out of necessity.

"Severus I'm afraid that another student has been petrified, and a few Gryffindors are taking it upon themselves to solve the mystery yet again." The headmaster slouched into one of Severus' chairs and cradled his head in his hands. "It's unfortunate that they've lost Miss Granger to assist in their efforts, though I'm sure they'll do just fine."

"You say this as if it's good news Albus, This person has murdered a child and finger painted death threats on our walls with blood." Severus cried, Albus looked up and only managed a shrug.

"Harry is the chosen one Severus, he can and will stop this with ease." Albus stated.

"Harry is just a boy and we should be protecting his ungrateful arse rather than encouraging his bad habits."

"Don't argue with me Severus, Harry will learn from his battles. He needs to if he's going to succeed in the future." Albus

"You say this as if you know what is to happen Albus." Severus muttered.

"I don't know what will happen, but I do know that Harry will be the one to save us all in the end." Albus flicked his gaze over to Severus' table and frowned. "You keep a lot of journals Severus, it surprises me to see that one is labeled after Miss Granger."

Severus cocked an eyebrow. "Yes. Does this concern you Albus?"

"Not at all but-"

"Good. You may leave now Albus, unless you wished to ask something of me?" Severus didn't bother to hide the anger lingering in his voice, of course Albus had good intentions, but he went about it in a way that he sometimes resented.

"Very well." Albus pulled himself on to his feet and with a wave of his wand he pulled the curtains open, shedding the room in golden light from the outside. "If you see the boys out after hours, please don't intercept them."

Severus mumbled an okay and watched as the headmaster disappeared from view.

The magic- _her_ magic, swirled slightly in response to his mood. He promised that he would make her better, and when he did he would attempt to teach her how to use her magic properly.

But of course before he did all of that, Hermione Granger needed to wake up.

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 **Severus is determined! I'm sorry if you were a little bit bored from all of the recap, but it was important to show that Severus has an idea of what's going on(and he cares, Severus Snape cares about something other than potions. It's a platonic care of course, but still.). Also Hermione's magic was explained a little bit, but there's still a lot more to it. Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored, and followed this story!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hello readers! A lot of the content that I've been writing about revolves around the struggle of Hermione and Severus, and some of you are starting to wonder how the year is going to play out now that I've changed so much. Well to put your minds at rest and fill up of plot holes I'm writing this chapter in the view of Harry, Ron, and Neville as they find there way to the chamber of secrets without Hermione. Now I've already written the next chapter in Severus' point of view, and I'll put that up in the next couple of days. (As a side note, all bold italics in the chapter are the notes that the boys jot down in the journal.)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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 ** _"Without you,_** ** _The tides change,_** ** _The boys run,_** ** _The oceans crash,_**

 ** _The crowds roar,_** ** _The days soar..." -RENT_**

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 _ **Day one without you**_

"Hey Neville, what are you writing there? Is that a journal or something?" Ron sat up in his bed and narrowed his eyes at Neville with curiosity. They were all in their dorm, Seamus was dead asleep while Harry, Ron, and himself chatted quietly amongst themselves about the current affairs in the school, at one point he got out of his bed and quietly tip toed over to the room desk and pulled out an empty notebook.

"It's not a journal, it's a- a report for Hermione so that she can read it when she wakes up, you know how she hates it when she misses stuff." Neville explained, he stuck his quill in the ink well and turned to Harry, who got of his bed and peered at the notebook.

"She'd probably like that, we can all take turns writing in it." Harry picked up the quill and Neville offered him the chair so he could sit down.

 _ **What we know so far:**_

"We know that there's a place called the chamber of secrets." Neville murmured.

 _ **A place called the "Chamber of Secrets" is somewhere in the school, and it has been opened.**_

"The heir of Slytherin is the one who opened it." Ron added.

 _ **It was opened by the heir of Slytherin, which could possibly be Draco.**_

"But we don't know that yet." Neville said quietly.

"It's our best lead right now, and I think we should run with it." Harry urged.

"Well he's not just going to confess to us that he's the heir, we need a plan." Ron pointed out, but then he crossed the room and rummaged through his things.

"Ron quiet down, you're going to wake up Seamus and then he's going to kill us all." Neville warned.

"What are you even looking for?" Harry hissed.

"This!" Ron waved his potions textbook in the air and pushed it on the desk next to the notebook.

"Have you even used that once this year?" Neville commented dryly.

"No, it's the beginning of the year." Ron explained.

"Ron, it's December already." Harry said slowly, his friend paled a little bit, then casually waved his hand.

"Okay, but this is what Hermione would use to fix our problems." Ron exclaimed. "When she's not throwing fire, she's looking at this book, or she goes to the book place."

"You mean the library?" Neville asked.

"Yeah that place, and she used it last year to find stuff about the philosopher's stone. So basically if we act like Hermione-"

"Then we find the chamber of secrets." Harry finished.

* * *

 _ **Day four without you**_

 _ **It's times like this where I wish I had payed some attention to your speeches about the library, this is Harry, and I am stuck with Ron and Neville in the restricted section of the library. We're looking for a potions textbook of some sort, hopefully it will have an obvious name on the front that suggests it contains a solution to our problems. I bet if you were here we'd be done searching by now, but you're not, and I have so many questions I want to ask you. I miss you.**_

"Harry, what do you think these little numbers mean on the sides of the books?" Ron tilted his head and ran his hand along the spine of a dusty book and stopped at a small label with a series of numbers printed onto it.

"It probably just shows what isle were in?" Neville examined the numbers and shrugged.

"It could be a code for something." Ron pointed at the book with wide serious eyes. "That's so cool!" he exclaimed.

"Ron, shut it you're going to get us caught. Who knows where Filch and Peeves are, they could be coming for us right now." Harry peered anxiously at the entrance to the library and jogged away from his friends, he examined a new isle of books and sighed with agitation when nothing particularly stuck out at him.

"It's not a code Ron." Neville's voice carried throughout the area and Harry felt his blood start to boil, now wasn't the time to bicker.

"Than what is it?" Ron challenged, Harry jumped as he heard the sound of a book hitting the ground, the silent room made it sound like a gunshot.

"Shut it! Someone is going to find us!" Harry called, and as soon as he did so the doors flung open revealing a rather agitated Filch, out of pure instinct Harry wrapped his invisibility cloak around himself and grabbed a random book off the shelf with the hopes that it might be about potions. He hobbled silently towards Neville and Ron but before he could save them they were spotted by Filch.

"What are you boys doing in here?! Get out now and go to bed, you'll both receive a weeks worth of detention from this and a trip straight to the headmaster tomorrow morning where you will explain yourselves." The man hollered, both Ron and Neville let out small whimpers and raced out of the library, Harry followed close behind and stayed silent until they made it back to the common room.

"A week of detention? That's ridiculous!" Neville whined.

"You two should have stayed quiet." Harry removed the cloak and shook the book in his hands at his friends.

"Oi, what have you got there Harry?" Ron pulled the book from Harry's hands and read the title out loud. "Moste Potente Potions. Look at that Harry, you actually did it!"

All three boys broke out in hysterical laughter, it took them a while to settle down before they finally escaped to their room to sleep.

* * *

 _ **Day twenty without you**_

 _ **Hi Hermione, this is Ron, and I just want to say that stealing ingredients from Snape's ingredient closet was not my idea. Harry said that it was a "necessary evil" and has dragged myself and Neville (or is it Neville and I? You always seem to correct me on this and I still don't get it.) to the old bat's office while he's away. We're going to try and make the polyjuice potion, and if we do it right we can turn into Draco's minions. We missed you during the holidays.**_

"Do you guys know what these ingredients look like?" Harry squinted his eyes at the various jars cluttered inside of the closet, each was set up in groups based on ingredient type: plants with plants, insects with insects, and liquids with liquids. The set-up was so precise that Hermione herself would have been impressed.

"I can pick out the plants, I can see the fluxweed and the Knotgrass but I'm lost on the rest." Neville pulled the ingredients out of the closet and poured some of each ingredient into a bag they brought along with them.

"Well leeches are obvious, and boomslang is a type of snake, and I think that jar has snake skin in it." Ron pulled those ingredients out of the closet and placed some of the contents into the bag.

"Horn of bicorn has to be this." Harry pulled a twisted horn out of the closet, and peered anxiously at the many jars of flies. "I guess the flies are a bit of a wild-card but the more the merrier." Harry pulled the jar containing largest amount of flies and dumped some of them into the bag.

"That's it right?" Neville shuffled through the bag, then started to put the jars back in place. "Let's get out of here before the bat get's back."

* * *

 _ **One month and twenty five days without you**_

 _ **Hey, this is Neville, our Polyjuice potion failed. Turns out we used the wrong flies, Professor McGonagall was furious when it exploded in our dorm. We don't need it though, Draco has an accurate alibi for the night when Colin died, and of course he was present during your duel against Snape, it was confirmed that he didn't leave the room when you were petrified. I suggested that we check out the place where Colin Creevey died, and where we found you. The girls bathroom.**_

"Are we even allowed in here?" Ron complained he inched hesitantly into the bathroom and crossed his arms.

"We weren't allowed in the restricted section or Snape's office, this should be a breeze." Harry stepped into the bathroom and Neville followed close behind, their footsteps echoing through the empty tiled room. It was far more extravagant than the boy's restroom the sinks themselves were encased in an intricate stone statue and the room smelled like lavender.

"There's nothing here." Ron flicked lazily at the sink and shrugged his shoulders, as soon as he did so the sink started to scream. Ron, Harry and Neville jumped as the screaming figure of moaning Myrtle flowed out of the faucet and proceeded to scream in Ron's face. Ron fell backwards and crawled away from the ghost with terror on his face. "Harry it's going to kill me because we're not supposed to be hear!"

Suddenly the ghost stopped and put her hands on her hips. "That's right, you're not supposed to be here, so I suggest you leave." She yelled.

"Who are you?" Harry asked slowly, he pulled Ron to his feet and pushed him away.

"I'm Myrtle, but everyone calls me moaning Myrtle." Myrtle sniffled and adjusted the glasses on her face. "Haven't you heard of me before?"

"S-sorry Myrtle, we don't hear about girl ghosts that often." Neville stammered.

"Oh that's a shame, well you all seem harmless enough. You don't have any books to throw at me do you?" Myrtle asked. "Girls throw them through me a lot."

"Uh no books, just a notebook, but we don't intend on throwing it." Neville waved the notebook at Myrtle who shrugged.

"Okay then, I guess you're safe for my new friend." Myrtle swept around the room and passed through Ron on the way, the boy shuddered and turned pale, Neville could see the gooseflesh running up his arms from where he stood.

"Your friend?" Harry asked.

"Yes, my friend, something that I have now." Myrtle said gleefully, she passed through one of the bathroom stalls, and when she emerged Ron feinted, Neville dropped the notebook, and Harry started to breathe in ragged breaths. Myrtle's friend was Colin Creevey.

"Colin." Harry breathed, the boy was dressed as he was found, his pants only slightly hiding the stump of his left leg, and his clothes were stained blotches that could only be his own blood. However, despite his horrendous, ghostly appearance, the boy had a bright smile on his face.

"Harry Potter, it's good to see you!" Colin swept forward, but Myrtle held him by the shoulder.

"No hugs Colin, you'll freeze his heart." She instructed.

"Right, ghost freeze, forgot about that part. What are you guys doing here?" Colin asked, he looked over at the three boys and frowned at Neville. "Did you bring a book to throw a Myrtle?"

"Uh no… um it's for-"

"It's for our friend, we've been writing everything down so that she wakes up she'll know everything we've done to try and find the person who… the person who killed you." Harry explained, Colin frowned and wrapped his arms around him.

"It wasn't a person, and Myrtle was killed by the same thing. It was a snake… a very large snake." Colin explained, Myrtle started to sniffle next to him and nodded her head.

"A snake?" Neville gasped.

"Yeah, it was a huge scaled thing with yellow eyes and… sharp teeth." Colin's voice cracked, and Myrtle nodded.

"Maybe Hagrid will know something about it." Harry murmured, Neville nodded and the two bent down to pick Ron up off the floor. "I'm so sorry for what happened to you Colin, I'll kill the snake. I promise." Harry declared

"Good luck Harry Potter, and if it will help you, there's a journal over in the corner a girl threw it at us the other day, and it's a bit odd." Colin pointed at a leather journal laying face down on the tiled floor. Neville gathered Ron in his arms as Harry retrieved the journal.

"Thanks Colin."

* * *

 _ **Four months and five days without you**_

 _ **I've been hearing voices in my head and I can talk to snakes. I wrote in a journal that answered back and brought me back in time to where the chamber of secrets first opened, and everyone thought that Hagrid did it, but he had a pet spider, not a pet snake. Also, that spider tried to eat us. Hermione, I think I've been hearing the snake the entire year, it's been talking to me. I'm going into the chamber, I know what to do. I just don't want to do it without you, I guess I'm not the great "Harry Potter" that everyone thinks I am. I need you right now Hermione, and it's about time that you wake up.**_

* * *

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It was just a little look into how the story line continues without Hermione, obviously they failed with the polyjuice potion, and it was done in their dorm room instead of the girl's bathroom. Colin is a ghost and he's keeping Moaning Myrtle company, and the boy's do not know what the Dewey decimal system is, but out of luck Harry got the right potions book. The next chapter will be up in the next couple of days and it will be in in Severus' point of view. Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored, and followed this story!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hello readers! I don't have much to say except for a giant thanks to all of my dedicated viewers, reviewers, favors, and followers who have been with this story since day one, and a massive welcome to anyone who has just recently stumbled upon this story! Thank you times infinity and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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 _"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." - Audrey Hepburn_

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Severus tapped his fingers gently against his desk, impatience biting at him as he watched over his busy students, each one of them had their heads bowed as they worked on a quiz. Three of his students displayed an alarming amount of discomfort as they took the quiz, each of them warily looking up to catch Severus' eye before bowing their head once more- they occasionally bothered to look over at the vacant seat that Miss Granger used to occupy and sighed when they realized that she was no longer present to scold them for asking for help during a test. She wouldn't humiliate them by verbally scolding them, instead she'd raise a brow and glare at them in a hilariously menacing way that used to lighten Severus' mood.

Miss Granger had officially been frozen in a petrified state for four months and five days. Severus stopped tapping on the table and pulled a small vial of murky green liquid from his pocket, by tonight he would give this to the girl and she would finally wake up. Of course he fully intended to help her get better, even though his close proximity to her might risk solidifying the bond he failed to understand, but these three boys desperately needed her guidance. The little thieves ransacked his personal supplies with the impossible goal to brew a potion that was beyond their skills and mental capacity, and they took it upon themselves to venture into the forbidden forest which led to the deaths of ten rare Acromantula spiders- Hagrid was rather disturbed by having to clean up the various spider limbs scattered about the school fields.

They were hopeless, Mr. Potter wasn't capable of solving every problem and Miss Grangers absence was proof. However, even with their countless failures and flaws, the boys were rather helpful in delivering the news that Colin Creevey was unable to move on and took the form of a ghost, it was this news that allowed him to create the mandrake potion in the first place. Severus swirled the potions once and frowned, it took a lot to get his hands on the mandrakes.

Pomona Sprout proved to be the most stubborn witch in the entire school, and she held on to her precious plants as if they were her own children. It turns out that after Miss Granger was found petrified Pomona made Albus promise that she wouldn't have to hand over the mandrakes until the murderer was found, and he obliged. So for four months Severus hounded the woman for one mandrake to revive Miss Granger, and it wasn't until the news of Colin's ghost state that she finally gave in. Apparently she was really fond of the boy, and the news that he never really left and was seeking revenge had the woman shoving mandrakes into Severus' arms. In that moment Pomona made him make a promise, and that was to protect the girl with his own life.

That had Severus thinking, and as he swirled the solution that would wake the girl up, he felt himself becoming less confident. The girl was a handful, always asking questions and demanding that her endless thoughts be heard, and he temper was well hidden yet highly destructive. She had a fire in her that she was now afraid to release because of his foolish actions, and if her emotions took the form of flaming beasts he would have to endure it. He had no plan of action, no instruction as to how he was supposed to establish trust between the two, and an endless amount of problems that he had yet to resolve.

It was funny to think that he's faced the Dark Lord, suffered through countless hours of torture, and lived the life of a spy. However, nothing could have prepared him for the girl with fire in her heart. Severus scoffed softly and place the vial down on his desk with a light tap, as he did so Neville lifted his head and flashed him a look of confusion before he hurriedly ducked his head back down. _Nosy boy._ He picked the vial back off of the desk and placed it in the pocket of his robes.

For the rest of the class period the students scribbled on, and when their time was up the quizzes humorously flew off of their desks and landed in a neat pile in front of him. He ignored the few whimpers of protests and collected the stack of papers in his hands. "Class dismissed, your grades be ready for review on Wednesday." A few groans sounded through the room as the students scrambled out of the class, Severus kept a close eye on Potter, who huddled close with his other friends. They were up to no good, but that wasn't anything new.

"Poppy I can only wake up Miss Granger, you know that." Severus crossed his arms and pushed the vial across the table to Poppy, who was currently eating a salad made up entirely of lettuce and broccoli. She dragged her fork through the salad and eyed the solution distastefully.

"That does not look very tasteful." She observed, with a small smile she looked out at the petrified students. "Perhaps leaving them petrified is a mercy."

"It doesn't taste that bad." Severus grumbled. "And for your information, I was able to add some flavoring to it so that it tastes like peaches."

Poppy raised a brow and smirked. "I spoke too soon, my apologies. Are you ready to wake her up?"

"No, she's a menace and I'm only doing this for the well being of the school. Mr. Potter is useless and the entire school will be petrified by the end of the year if they don't have the aid of Miss Granger." Severus explained.

"Oh those boys are doing just fine, you're just too stubborn to see it." Poppy exaggerated her point by waiving her fork around. "They discovered Colin and they know _something_ but they haven't told us yet."

"What makes you so sure that they have a single clue as to what's going on?"

"Arachnophobia." Poppy stated.

"Yes, your point is?" Severus drawled.

"Mr. Weasley has an acute fear of spiders, something that he has displayed since his first year. So why would he walk headlong into the forbidden forest with the knowledge that he was following a literal trail of spiders?" Poppy asked, she popped a piece of broccoli in her mouth and shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay so they do know what they're doing, but I must bring Miss Granger back to proper health conditions." Severus growled, he plucked the vial off the table and marched over to where Hermione lay, Poppy following hurriedly behind him.

"She's not going to be ready to return to her classes for at least a month." Poppy said quickly.

"Wait to tell that to Miss Granger." Severus popped open the vial and was welcomed by the aroma of peaches.

"That girl loves her classes, and if she's conjuring massive flaming lions out of anger I'm not trying to be the one to deliver that news in particular."

"Whatever you say Poppy." Severus leaned towards the girl and placed the vial close to her slightly open mouth. "Into the mouth correct?"

"Yes, we're quite lucky that she was petrified that way, the other students will have to receive a shot." Poppy commented, she crossed her arms and nodded. "Go ahead."

Severus tipped the vial to pour, only a few drops fell into her mouth before a shout echoed throughout the infirmary.

"Stupefy!" Severus winced as the vial shattered in his hands and with a flick of his wrist his wand was in his hand, he spun around and narrowed his eyes at three guilty looking boys. Harry had his wand raised, his other hand was curled into a fist.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?" Severus hollered, he whipped his wand and shouted. "expelliarmus." Harry's wand soared through the air and skidded on the ground, Poppy let out a gasp of surprise and Harry's face turned red. "Explain yourselves immediately before I reduce your house points to zero and give all three of you detention until you graduate."

"That wasn't the mandrake potion." The Weasley boy exclaimed. Severus wiped his wet hand on his robes and glared at Neville who took a hesitant step forward.

"We took the mandrake potion because we wanted to wake up Hermione, she's been out for a long time and ." He whimpered. "We replaced the mandrake potion with peach juice that we dyed green."

"Where's the actual potion?" Severus demanded, Harry uncurled his fist and held out a tiny vial of green liquid. Severus stepped forward and gently took it from his hand. "You ransacked my supply once again." Severus grumbled.

"Oh, don't be so hard on the boys Severus." Poppy bent down and retrieved Harry's wand. "They only wanted to wake up their friend." She walked carefully over to the boys and handed Harry his wand, she then placed her hands on her hips and gave them a stern look. "It's dinner time, you boys should be eating, not wandering the halls and snooping through your professor's things."

"We'll go eat, but can we wait until she wakes up?" Ron asked, he looked up at Poppy with pleading eyes and a pout on his face, the other two boys gave her similar looks.

"That's up to your professor." Poppy said, all three boys sighed in defeat and turned to walk away, and as Severus popped open the vial he started to think. _The whole idea of getting her better starts with making her happy, and these three idiots seem to be good at that._

"They may stay." Severus grumbled, the boys let out excited cheers and huddled around Hermione, they looked at Severus in excitement as he brought the vial to the girl's lips. With a deep breath he poured the entire contents of the vial into her mouth. _Time to wake up little fire heart._

Severus stepped back and after a few silent moments the girl stirred and started coughing, and when her eyes opened she was greeted by the beaming faces of her three excited friends. She winced as she sat up and she forced a smile on her tired looking face. "Hey guys." Her voice was scratchy, and her body was rigid, her face turned so that she wouldn't risk catching Severus' stare. While this was happening Severus felt a flood her her magic and emotions enter his mind all at once, it was both reassuring and overwhelming, but he welcomed it openly. He felt her happiness poke into his brain, and he almost smiled. Almost.

"Hermione!" All of the boys yelled this in unison and threw themselves at the girl, each of them fighting for a chance to hug the girl.

"We have so much to tell you!" Ron exclaimed, and from his back pocket he conjured a small notebook, from behind him Poppy cleared her throat. "But we have to go now, we'll visit tomorrow though." He placed the book on her leg and stepped away from the bed.

Poppy smiled lightly and herded the boys out of the room, leaving Severus and Hermione alone, he inched forward and the girl pulled the bed sheets around her. She was uncomfortable.

"Miss Granger." She turned her heads towards him but avoided making eye contact, her attention was more focused on the fabric of his robes.

"Yes professor?" Her voice quivered and the sheets around her shifted as she rubbed her hands together nervously.

"I apologize for my actions towards you." That simple statement caused her eyes to shoot up and meet his, the expression on her face was stunned and confused all at once. "I've been negligent of your needs and promise that I will never treat you in such a way again. From here on my sole purpose is to help you, and I will not fail." The words came naturally from his mouth, he truly meant every word and the girl sitting in front of him seemed to know it.

"I'm different, aren't I?" She whimpered, she lifted a small hand and as she did so the tiny pieces of glass from the broken vial started levitating in the air.

"Yes." Severus watched as the pieces of glass swirled around in the air like a little tornado, Hermione's worried honey eyes narrowed slightly as she focused on the glass.

"Is that a bad thing?" She asked, she let the pieces fall to the ground and she folded her hands in her lap.

"No, and I'm going to help you control it." Severus tried to be as convincing as possible, but the clever girl still raised her brow.

"So you've seen this type of magic before?" Her hope prodded into his brain.

"No, but I promise that we'll work through it together." At the mention of the word "together" he was greeted by a mix of happy and determined emotions, as well as a smile.

"Professor?" She wrung her hands together and glanced sheepishly up at him.

"Already starting with the questions Miss Granger?"

"Well, you see before I was um… petrified. There was a snake, and I leaned on the snake when I went to put my shoes on-"

"I'm sorry, you _leaned_ on a snake?"

"It wasn't a regular snake, it was a giant snake professor. As I was trying to say-"

"A giant snake..." Suddenly the petrified students made and he let out a curse. _Those boys have been chasing after an ancient basilisk the entire time, and not even I, the one who works with basilisk ingredients, realized it._

"Professor?" Hermione crawled out from the covers and attempted to stand, her teeth gritted in effort.

"lay down Miss Granger and stay here, I have to prevent your idiot friends from killing themselves."

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 **Hermione is awake! Severus said he was sorry! The boys ransacked Severus' office again! I'm not sure which point of view I want to write the next chapter in, I think Hermione would be good, but I also like Severus' point of view. Sorry for the late update, but there's a lot to talk about- what was Hermione trying to tell Severus? How is Severus going to help Hermione? And with the last couple of chapters for year two coming up, how do you expect the battle with Tom Riddle to go down? Let me know what you think, and if you have a preference of P.O.V's let me know, I might just write it based off of what you think. I'd like to thank everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored, and followed this story, you guys are #1!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello readers! I've decided to split the chapter, with the first part being in Hermione's point of view and the second part in Severus'. That being said, this will be a long chapter and I hope that you all enjoy it!**

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" _ **It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."**_

 _ **-Aristotle**_

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When Hermione was around her parents, they often told her exciting stories about what happened in their dental office; while most of them had a happy ending, some of them didn't. For what seemed like years, Hermione dealt with something that resembled the stories about anesthesia awareness, where a patient was fully conscious during a surgery, but couldn't move. She couldn't make out her own thoughts, instead all she could hear, feel, taste, and smell belonged to someone- or something, else. Only a small part of her was active enough to realize her situation, and she relied solely on the temperamental voice in her mind. At some points it was calm, other times it expressed an inferno of anger, but the majority of the time it expressed the desire for freedom. It didn't speak, it only uttered silent hisses, it only tasted of rotted meat, it only smelled of wet stone, and all it felt was the rough ground under it's skin. Yet somehow, it was the strongest comfort that she'd felt in a very long time.

It was only now that Hermione was fully awake that she realized that she was feeling everything that the snake felt, though her consciousness seemed to overwhelm the snake's presence and now it was only a small glimmer in her mind. She tried to mention it's presence in her mind to her professor, she wished he would have stayed for a minute longer to hear what she had to say, but his leaving was justified if he intended on saving her friends. Hermione was certain that her body might give out if she tried to stand up to follow her professor, so she was left in an empty infirmary with the strange thought that one touch led to the creation of a connection between herself and a giant snake.

She'd never heard of such an occurrence and now that she was awake she tried to explore every part of it. She closed her eyes and tried to hone in on the snake, she was pleased to feel it swirl in welcome and she felt her senses flood with everything it was feeling, and she also felt its power.

Magic was strange. Hermione came to this conclusion as she felt the foreign power leak into her veins, it twisted delightfully with hers, and she had the burning urge to release it. She bit her lip and glanced around the empty infirmary, the only thing that could see her magic now was dying rays of sun that peeped through the windows. It also helped to know that her professor wasn't completely terrified from her magic, and if he was going to work with her she might as well practice with it. _How Slytherin of me._

She sucked in a breath and leaned over the side of her bed, being petrified for an extended amount of time made her muscles stiff beyond comfort and it pained her to move. She scooted to the edge of the mattress and focused on the glittering pieces of glass on the floor, and wondered what it came from, with a wave of her hands the glass was up off the floor and suspended in front of her like a cloud cloud of crystals. She admired how lovely the pieces glittered as the calm rays of sunset bounced off of them, then she narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath, usually she would just call her magic and it would do as she pleased but this time she experimented by silently thinking of the mending charm. Her magic, paired with the snake's, reacted immediately and the shards of glass started to fit themselves together like a puzzle piece. When it was done a small potions vial was floating in the air and not a single piece was missing, with a squeak of joy she plucked it from the air and rubbed her hands over the cool surface. Once she was done admiring her work she put it on the bed next to her, then she picked up the small notebook that Ron had left for her, it was humorously titled "A Petrified Girl's Guide to the Past Four Months." the ink was fresh so the boys must have know that she was supposed to wake up today, she tried to ignore the panic that built in her when she realized that she missed four months worth of classes.

Hermione paused and set the notebook back down, she looked around quizzically and winced when she saw the statue like body of a petrified student across the room from her- with a wave of her hand she drew every curtain in the infirmary open and gasped when she saw all of the petrified bodies. _Why am I awake, when they are all still asleep?_ Hermione grabbed at the notebook and flicked through the pages. She skimmed through the numerous entries that the boys wrote as she frantically searched for a logical reason as to why she was the only one relieved of the petrified state. As she made it to the end Harry expressed that he could talk to snakes, and could in fact, _talk_ to snakes, which led her to believe that he might share a similar connection with her snake. She couldn't imagine at what time Harry would have been able to make physical contact with the reptile without being killed or petrified in the process, but that didn't matter much now, especially if he needed her help. That's why she was awake, and if they truly needed her help now, she was failing them by sitting around in a bed.

She braced her arms against the side of the bed and with a gasp of effort she pushed herself up off of the bed, her muscles screamed at her as she assumed a standing position. As soon as she felt that she might be able to walk, a startling pop broke the silence and had her crashing back down on the bed, she turned her head towards the alarming noise and tilted her head when she met two very large green eyes. It was a small little creature with bat like ears and was dressed in an immaculate white toga, in it's arms it had a tray with a pot of tea. It looked down at the tray then back at Hermione before giving her a weak smile.

"Hello Miss, my name is Blinky, Blinky serves Madam Pomfrey as loyal elf. Blinky did not mean to scare you young miss, you may go back to resting now while Blinky sets up the Madam's evening tea." Her voice was high pitched yet relatively soothing, Hermione attempted to stand again which had the elf dropping the tray on the ground as she rushed over to the struggling girl. "Young Miss must sit down until Madam comes back!"

"I'm sorry Blinky, but I must leave to help my friends." Hermione took a wobbly step forward and tried to push back the elf that clutched at her robes.

"Miss cannot help friends in her condition, it's best if Miss stays here." Blinky urged she tugged on Hermione making it even more difficult to move, pain came in stabbing jolts that ran up and down her legs.

"If I don't help they could die Blinky, I wish that you would let me go." Hermione exclaimed, with that the elf let go of her robes and crossed her skinny arms.

"Blinky does not think it wise for miss to leave, miss can get hurt." Blinky argued.

"I have my wand, and if I need any help I'll have my friends with me." Hermione pulled her wand out and showed it to the elf, who immediately let go of her robes. She went silent as she stared at the wand, then obediently stepped off to the side.

"Blinky feels miss is too important to lose, but Blinky cannot hold miss against her will." The elf muttered, Hermione took a step forward and slowly walked past the elf, before she walked away she offered her a smile.

"I will be okay Blinky, it was very nice to meet you." The elf smiled a little bit, and with a snap of her fingers she, and the fallen pot and tray disappeared with a pop.

"Huh, I didn't know elves worked at the school." Hermione muttered to herself, and with unsteady legs she finally left the infirmary.

Getting down the stairs was rather difficult and she silently wished that she knew a spell that could take away the pain that came with moving every muscle in her body, her feet felt like needles and her knees felt like they were grinding against cement. As she descended the staircase she caught a clear and confusing image of the first floor below. It was around half past seven at night and while it was getting dark outside the torches in the hallways should be blazing, instead they were extinguished which made the random river of water covering the floors look like a black sea. _It's never flooded this bad down here._ Hermione ran her hands along the wall of the school for support as she eased her feet into the frigid water, it felt relatively nice against her sore muscles, but yet again she had to experience the horribly awkward feeling of wet socks and shoes.

Water pooled just past her ankles and splashed obnoxiously as she progressed down the dark corridor, she kept close to the walls and ran her hands along their secure surface, but as it go harder to see she pulled out her wand. "Lumos." she murmured, and as wand started to bathe the area in light, she felt her stomach turning into knots. The hand that she had situated along the walls was dirtied by a dust and something red and sticky, Hermione winced and took a step back from the wall and lifted her wand towards the stones, she cried out as she read the daunting message written in blood that dripped sluggishly down the wall. "Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever." Hermione stumbled away from the wall and looked down at the water, which turned pink from the addition of blood running off of the stones. She took a ragged breath and continued down the hallway, but she didn't have to go far, she knew that she was in the right place when she heard running water.

It was the same place where she was petrified, and also where Colin Creevey was murdered, and at some point Hermione should have realized that the "chamber of secrets" that the boys spoke about, was actually located in the girl's bathroom. It only made sense, and she wondered how many students were petrified by the bathroom before someone got the hint, as she trudged into the bathroom, she unsteadily fought against the current that pushed against her feet. When she finally made it into the bathroom she noticed two things: the first thing was the two ghosts floating near the grand circular sink which was gushing water, and the second thing she noticed was that the sink was _open._

"Oh, look Colin, it's the girl who likes the books." Moaning Myrtle drawled, the ghost next to her whipped his head around and gave Hermione a sheepish smile.

"Hi Hermione." Hermione held on to the door frame for support as she stared rather impolitely at the ghostly figure of the boy.

"Colin." she breathed, she took a step forward and slipped on the water covered tiles below, she gasped as her back made impact with the floor. "Ouch." To say the fall hurt was an understatement, and for a minute she considered lying there until someone found her, but she had to get up for her friends and she bit through the pain to do so.

"Heh, at least I can't fall and hurt myself like _that_ anymore." Colin chuckled, he swept away from Myrtle and floated by Hermione. "Your friends are down there, as is Snape and Lockhart. Snape told me specifically to not let anyone back in, but you're friends with Harry so I think that I can make an exception." He said gleefully.

"Thanks Colin, they're all down there?" Hermione asked, if anything the best way to treat this situation was to act like seeing Colin was a normal thing, but in reality she was on the verge of having a meltdown. Hermione did her best to walk towards the open sink and saw the uninviting drop that led to the chamber.

"Don't worry about the drop, it's actually a lot like a slide from what your friends said." Colin paused and caught Hermione's look of confusion. "Their voices carry pretty far from the sewer." He explained.

"Do you know what's down there?" Hermione asked lightly, Myrtle scoffed and nodded her head.

"Only something completely _awful,_ Harry Potter called it a snake, but the rude professor called it a basilisk." Myrtle said, she adjusted her glasses and crossed her arms. "I don't expect any of them to live." She stated sourly.

"What Myrtle means to say is that all of them are going to kill the basilisk so it doesn't hurt anyone ever again." Colin said it to be reassuring, but she felt her blood run cold. If the basilisk died what would happen to her? _Is our connection strong enough for its death to kill me?_

"Okay." Hermione nodded at the two young ghosts before she took a breath and slid down into the chamber of secrets.

* * *

"Idiotic, insufferable, hot headed Gryffindors." Severus growled, for the past hour he had to collect every student and shove them into the great hall as the entire school body went up in panic over a death threat written in blood on the wall leading to the girl's bathroom. Of course, the three Gryffindor boys were no where to be found and now he was forced to pursue a basilisk that was bound to serve them all an aggressive and painful death.

At this point it was clear that the girl's bathroom had something to do with the "chamber of secrets" so he whisked into the bathroom with his wand in hand, his eyes immediately found the figure of a ghost and the sink, which apparently could somehow open into an entrance.

"Hello S- professor Snape." the ghost was Colin Creevey, Severus opted to give the boy a slight wave and tried not to stare.

"Perhaps you can help me Mr. Creevey, I must follow the three banes of my existence down into the chamber and I need you to make sure that no one follows me." Severus explained, the boy flinched at his description and nodded.

"I would if I could Professor, but I'm not exactly in the condition to do so." Severus felt a pang at the statement.

"Nonsense boy, you're a ghost, which means that you have the power of possession."

"Like Peeves."

"Yes, but I hope that you would use your gift towards less annoying goals that Peeves takes on." Severus muttered. "Do what you can, the less people that come down here the better."

"Yes professor… I think I'll start with all the lights and go from there"

Severus nodded once in the boy's direction before stepping through the fountain, he immediately wasn't pleased that he had to slide down into the chamber, and was even less pleased when he was launched onto a pile of bones. "Bloody fucking hell." he cursed, the rough bones bit into his back and he struggled to his feet and stumbled down the pile. He muttered "lumos" and followed the bones that Potter and his friends crushed on their way down, they couldn't be too far, and if they were, there was a chance that he was too late to save them.

As he wandered through the tunnel he let is mind drift to the girl who just woke up, he couldn't help but be amazed by her use of wandless and nonverbal magic, the way she preformed it- she just waved her hand as if it was a simple task. She did about it in a way that made him seem as though he were to reliant on his own wand, and it certainly caused him to feel a little weak in her presence.

"Oh look, it's a man coming to save us all. Hope isn't lost!" Severus narrowed his eyes at the voice that suddenly filled the dark cave like corridor, and he thought he might have finally gone crazy when he saw the scene in front of him. Gilderoy Lockhart had his periwinkle tie wrapped about his head, the Weasley boy had the professor sitting down on a rock with his wand pointed at his head, and Neville was lying on the ground apparently knocked out cold. Ron jumped as Severus' light shone in his face, the boy instantly sheathed his wand and crossed his arms.

"I assume that there's a reasonable explanation as to why your professor is uttering nonsense with his tie around his head." Severus growled.

"I'm a professor? How wonderful! What do I teach?"Lockhart said in amazement.

"Professor Lockhart tried to obliviate us, but it rebounded and he erased his memory." Ron stated glumly. "And a rock knocked Neville out when the ceiling collapsed."

"That sounds painful." Lockhart commented.

"Mr. Longbottom getting knocked out is a given at this point Mr. Weasley. I'm guessing Potter has decided to move on to tackle a full grown basilisk by himself." Severus sighed and didn't wait for the boy to answer. "Move out of my way."

Ron pushed the obliviated professor out of the way and pulled Neville to safety by his arms. "Reducto." Severus said the spell calmly, yet it was strong enough to pulverize the pile of rocks that blocked their way.

"Bloody hell." Ron exclaimed.

"Ten points for language Mr. Weasley, and I expect you to stay here while I go to retrieve Mr. Potter." Severus ordered, but the boy scoffed and attempted to follow him.

"I refuse to stay here while my friend fights a giant snake!"

"Then you leave me no choice Mr. Weasley." Severus turned around and pointed his wand at the redhead and muttered "Stupefy." the boy went down like a rock and for good measure he stunned the obliviated Lockhart immediately after. Severus was likely to get in trouble for stunning a second year, but it was a necessary evil at the moment.

Severus didn't have to walk too far after that, and he cautiously approached the round entrance to the room beyond. The room itself was spectacular, a stone representation of Salazar Slytherin's face was at the far end of the room, standing in front of it on the damp floors was Harry and two other figures; one was on the floor and the other was standing close to Harry, it looked like the mysterious figure was wearing a school uniform. They were yelling at each other, but he couldn't quite catch the words past the running water that echoed through the room. Suddenly Salazar's mouth shifted open, and from it a giant snake was released- the basilisk was free, and Harry was defenseless. Severus was about to hurdle himself into the room, but before he could an explosion of red feathers darted past him.

"Fawkes?" Severus breathed, the phoenix flew into the room and dropped a brown bag looking object at Harry's feet before flying at the giant beast. As the phoenix scratched at the basilisk's eyes the strange student started yelling curses, and Harry pulled an object out with a flash of silver- he had a sword. As Harry scrambled up the stone Salazar Severus finally regained his focus and went to step into the room, but once again he was interrupted.

"Sir…" Severus whipped his head around and gaped at the struggling figure of Granger, she had an arm wrapped around her side and the other held her wand. Tears ran down her face and pink lines dragged around her eyelids.

"Miss Granger, explain yourself." Severus growled, to his surprise the girl huffed and rolled her bloodshot eyes.

"Forgive me professor but I don't think that _now_ is the proper time for interrogation, Harry can't kill the s- basilisk." She said frantically, she tried to walk into the room but he stepped in her way.

"Why not?" Severus demanded she craned her neck to see behind him, terror flooded her features at the scene occurring behind them.

"I tried to tell you before- I touched the basilisk and that seemed to have created a connection." She whimpered this, and Severus watched in horror as her tears started to run red. "I can feel everything that it feels." She wiped at the tears and flinched when her hands came back bloody. "You have to let me go."

"Miss Granger you need medical attention and I cannot allow you to-"

"I have to go before it's too late, and you should stay here." Hermione charged at him, and before she could make contact he jumped out of the way.

"Come back here Miss Granger." Severus hollered, bond or not he still went to grab her, but with the wave of her hand the door in front of him slammed shut, and he was left staring furiously at an ornate stone door. "Damn girl!"

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 **Oh I loved writing this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it too! I'd like to thank the "Even Severus Needs Love" community for adding my story! Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored, and followed this story.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hello readers! I couldn't leave you with that cliffhanger for too long, so I've decided to update early, and I hope the wait was worth it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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 _ **"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." -Sun Tzu**_

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Hermione tried to ignore the chaos going on around her as she limped towards Ginny and the strange boy who stood beside her body, the boy was dressed in robes with a Slytherin patch and he sneered at her as she approached. She clutched her side in pain for a moment, on her way down into the chamber she fell awkwardly on a pile of bones, and that paired with the sharp knives of pain jolting around her body and the blood leaking from her sore eyes made it hard for her to focus.

"Harry Potter recruited a wounded little mudblood bird to help him? How utterly pathetic." He spat, though as Hermione got closer the boy didn't move to attack her, instead he watched her carefully as she dropped her knees and shook the very cold first year, when she didn't wake Hermione looked at the boy carefully in the eyes.

"What did you do to her?" Hermione demanded.

"You have no right to demand answers from me girl, you shouldn't even exist and are a stain upon this once great society." He hissed, then he cocked an eyebrow at her, "What were you intending to do about it anyways? It looks as if the plague has rendered your eyes to become bloody and you're limping around like an abused rodent."

Hermione chose to ignore him and switched her attention over to Harry, he was standing on a statue of a man's face, the basilisk reared and struck at him knocking a brilliant silver sword out of his hand. Harry stumbled backwards and watched helplessly as the sword fell into the water below, and the boy next to Hermione started to cackle.

"Watch with me little mudblood as the chosen one dies, and be sure to know that you're next." He exclaimed, his eyes sparkled with excitement as the basilisk reared, Hermione clutched at her wand and was unsure to do. Her mind was scrambled but as the basilisk flung itself forward she cried out.

"Stop!" The basilisk halted and turned its bloody face towards Hermione, Harry followed it's gaze and gasped at the sight of his friend, the boy next to her glared and stepped towards the beast.

"What do you think you're doing? Kill him!" He hollered, but the basilisk wouldn't move and Harry started to frantically crawl off of the stone face.

"Hermione run!" He screamed, and Hermione was tempted, but the basilisk started hissing softly, and it echoed around the room like a song. When it pulled itself towards Hermione she didn't move, and she all but ignored Harry's warnings and the Slytherin boy's rants. It rested it's face so it was level to Hermione, and despite the ferocious looking teeth and the grotesque bloody face, she reached out and stroked the side of it's scaled face. She felt it then, the overwhelming sharing over power that made her heart flutter, she could feel it's recognition- she could also feel its pain.

"Don't let him fool you little one, the blood in your veins is much more powerful and magical than his." Hermione gasped as the deep baritone voice seeped into her mind, the basilisk seemed to chuckle in response. How can I here you?

"You and I share a bond and with that bond we share a gift- you and I may see into the minds of others while keeping our thoughts guarded. I know you have further questions, but I see that your friend is quite worried that you're so close to me. I reckon that he still believes that I killed your colleague willingly, and I assure you that that was not the case." The basilisk reared away from Hermione as Harry stumbled blindly towards her, his face a mask of horror and shock.

"Our time here is limited, the Dark One spawns from the journal in the girl's hands. It's best that you alone know that I am alive after this, so throw the journal in my mouth and I will put on a show." Hermione nodded and stepped away from the beast, she hurriedly ran over to Ginny, but Harry got to her first and held the journal in his hands.

"Hermione are you okay?" Harry stepped cautiously towards her and kept his eyes on the steady basilisk. "Your eyes are bleeding."

"I know, and I'll try to explain it to you later, but the basilisk-"

"Was being controlled by Tom Riddle aka Voldemort, he forced the basilisk to kill Colin. I know." Harry weighed the journal in his hands, and flinched as a dry cough echoed through the room, Hermione and Harry spun around and glared at Tom.

"That basilisk is mine, it's supposed to answer to me, not some filthy little rodent mudblood!" He screeched, "That doesn't matter anyways, this little blood traitor is nearly dead, and I will return to my place in the world." He declared. Both of them rolled their eyes and huddled together.

"Harry, Tom isn't exactly real, he needs a conduit as a source of power." Hermione explained.

"The journal? I could burn it." Harry offered, but Hermione shook her head and gently took the journal from his hands.

"I have an idea." She turned towards the basilisk and presented the journal to its lowered head. "We could let the basilisk destroy it." She looked at Harry for some type of approval, usually the boy took charge with final decisions, and she only felt good about the choice when he nodded his head.

"It'd be like poetic justice I guess." He said with a shrug, though he looked urgent and constantly glanced at Ginny's corpse like body.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Tom hollered, Hermione clenched the journal in her hands and looked at the basilisk.

"Don't worry, after this I'll simply go to sleep, and you may visit me when you are able." Hermione nodded and wiped a bloody tear that tracked down her dirtied face, and then she threw the journal into the air.

"No! You stupid girl!" Tom fell to his knees as the basilisk captured the journal in its jaws, both she and Harry gasped as the boy's body disintegrated into bright wisps of light, his screams dying off as his remains scattered along the floor. As promised, the basilisk put on a show and let out a strangled cry.

"What's happening?" Harry yelled, he looked on in horror as the basilisks body started to jerk uncontrollably and fell to the floor with a thud. Both students fell silent- one was convinced that the basilisk had dropped dead, the other withheld a laugh as she admired the basilisk's theater skills. Hermione's eyes finally stopped bleeding, and she felt a sense of peace flood her mind.

"What happened?" Both Harry and Hermione turned and ran over to Ginny, who was trying to pick herself up off of the floor. When she saw Harry she let out a sob and shook as tears rolled down her face. "I didn't mean to help him I-" Harry bent down and scooped the girl into a hug

"It's okay Ginny, it's not your fault." Harry cooed, the girl shook her head and let Harry help her to her wobbly feet. When Ginny caught sight of Hermione her mouth hung open in shock and her face turned a ghostly white.

"Hermione, are you okay?" She gasped, Hermione looked down at her bloody hands and winced as she thought about how here face appeared. She waved the girl off and gave her a crooked smile.

"I'm fine, but Harry needs attention as soon as possible." Hermione took hold of Harry's injured hand and narrowed her eyes at the gash that ran from his knuckle to his wrist.

"It's not that bad Hermione." Harry pulled his hand away and hid it from Hermione's view. "I'll be fine." but he wouldn't be, as his face already started to become pale.

Hermione looked around frantically for an exit, and was relieved when she caught sight of Fawkes, who was flying towards them with the sorting hat in his hands. He landed on Harry's shoulder and let out a happy chirp. Harry looked at the phoenix and went to stroke his feathers, when he went to pull his hand away the bird bit his hand slightly as if to tell him to hold still. Harry obliged and allowed the phoenix to cry on his hand, both Ginny and Hermione looked on in amazement as the wound reduced to a small pink scar.

"Look at that, problem solved!" Harry exclaimed, he turned towards Ginny and noticed that she looked quite feint. "We need to get out of here before Ginny passes out again, Fawkes can carry heavy loads." he suggested.

"Can he carry seven people?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Seven? I thought there was only six of us." Harry saw Ginny's confused face and explained. "Your brother, Neville, and professor Lockhart are waiting for us behind that door."

"And professor Snape." Hermione clarified. "Perhaps we should go in two trips."

"Snape is here?"

"Yes, and I may have slammed the door in his face while trying to get to you." It was Ginny who asked if she had a death wish, and they all chuckled lightly at that.

"Well I'll open the door, you and Ginny can go first, and then Fawkes can come get the rest of us after." Harry nudged the phoenix off his shoulder and smiled at it. "Are you okay with that Fawkes?"

The phoenix chirped in approval and launched himself in the air. Harry gave the girls a parting look and before he jogged away he laughed and said "Have fun!"

* * *

They did have quite a bit of fun, the phoenix was rather strong for his size, and was able to find an easy way out of the chamber with ease. The fun didn't last though, and when the two girls stumbled into the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey looked ready to murder Hermione.

"You could have damaged your nerves walking around like that after being petrified for four months- why is blood on your face? Where are the boys? Are you okay Ginny?" The mediwitch rambled off questions while guiding the girls to hospital beds, she did a quick diagnostic spell on Ginny, then turned to Hermione and did the same. She sighed and let her wand fall by her side, she was shaking her head in agitation as she gave Hermione a stern look.

"Ginny is fine and will make full recovery, you on the other hand, have a bruised rib Miss Granger." She growled. "Why and how did you leave this bed, I know that you're not that much of a reckless fool, so you must have had a reason."

"The boys needed my help so I got up to find them!" Hermione exclaimed, she winced slightly as she felt the adrenaline wearing off, and the pain started to set in. "They wanted my help, you can read it in the notebook that they gave me."

"I don't care about a notebook Miss Granger, I'm concerned that you were so willing to risk your life. Have you no value in yourself child?" Madam Pomfrey demanded, "Don't you realize how important you are?"

"Nothing else matters when my friends need me, if I had died it would have been worth it, and if I have permanent nerve damage then so be it. At least I did something rather than waiting around for a boy to save the day by himself!" Hermione balled her fists up and felt the tears starting to run down her face, and her magic started to stir.

"She really did help Madam Pomfrey." Ginny offered, but the witch still looked furious, and dismissed her attempt to help.

"Poppy I'll take it from here." Hermione felt her blood run cold as her professor's voice filled the room, Madam Pomfrey looked at him and nodded, then she turned her attention to the group next to professor Snape: Ron looked relatively okay, Neville had a line of blood running from a small cut on his head, professor Lockhart appeared as though it was the first time he'd ever seen the infirmary, and Harry was gazing at Hermione with silent appreciation. Professor Snape was the exact opposite of Harry, and looked as though he was prepared to scream at her, Hermione shuffled awkwardly as the professor approached her and drew the curtains so that they were out of view. He waved his wand and muttered a silencing charm before turning his attention to her, He let out a sigh and broke the uncomfortable silence.

"You slammed a door in my face and refused a direct order Miss Granger." The fact that his voice was so calm made Hermione panic a little bit more, she picked nervously at the sheets on the bed and nodded.

"I did."

"You deliberately put yourself in the way of danger, even when you weren't in the condition to defend yourself." He raised his eyebrow then and Hermione started to wonder if he was just stating facts.

"I did," She repeated, only this time she said it slowly and frowned.

"You didn't just do it to save Potter." Severus approached closer now and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, he then pulled out his wand and summoned water that soaked the piece of cloth. He wrung it out and carefully handed it to her, she sighed with realization that she would once again destroy one of his handkerchiefs with her blood, then she rubbed the cool cloth along her face. When she pulled it away it was crimson and smelled like copper.

"No, I didn't." Hermione admitted, she looked up at her professor, who was looking down at her with a disturbed look on his face. "I felt what the basilisk was feeling… I felt all of it."

"Yet you are still alive while the beast is not." He said it with a bit of wonder, and his face resembled the look he made while brewing a potion in class- focused and calculating.

"I touched it before I was petrified, and I thought that a side effect of touching a basilisk might create a connection of some sort, though not powerful enough to kill me." Hermione offered, she obviously didn't feel that such a thing was a reasonable explanation to the phenomenon, but she hoped it would ease his mind.

"Perhaps." He murmured, and then their little space fell silent, and Hermione fought for something to say. Some way to apologize for her action, even if she wasn't entirely sorry. To her disappointment nothing came to mind, and her professor turned to leave. Please don't go.

He halted, and turned towards her once again, tired dark eyes stared down into her own, and Hermione felt her magic pulse warmly through her veins. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it, frustration clear on his face. Hermione waited patiently and looked on as her professor had an internal debate.

"Miss Granger..." He started, Hermione looked up at him in anticipation, and once again started to fiddle with the bed sheets. "Last year I offered you an apprenticeship, if I were to offer such a position would you-"

"Yes." Hermione blurted, her professor raised a brow and actually smirked.

"Very well, but I fear that you will be restricted to the infirmary for at least two months." Hermione felt a frown form on her face."We will have to start next year."

"Okay." Hermione offered her professor a smile, and once again she apologetically presented the handkerchief. "I apologize for ruining another one of your handkerchiefs."

"No need to apologize, just make sure that I don't have to offer you another one in the future. I have to go speak with Albus now, you should make sure to get some rest." Her professor advised, Hermione nodded and settled down into the bed, placing the handkerchief of the nightstand next to her. Before he left, he looked back at her once more. "I bet if you used that magic of yours, you could get that stain out." He gestured at the handkerchief, then, with a wave of his wand, the silencing charm lowered and he silently left Hermione to her thoughts. Hermione winced as tiny jolts of pain ran up her body as she reached for the handkerchief, and although the basilisk was in a hibernation like state, she was still able to fuse a bit of its magic with her own. With a happy sigh, she grasped the handkerchief and promptly went to work.

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 **I bet you all have a LOT of questions and I'm not going to lie- it's going to be a while before all of your questions are answered. However, maybe the next chapter will help you out with a couple of those questions, and it will be held in Severus' point of view. Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, followed, and favored this story!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello readers! Sorry about the late update, I had some issues with my computer and have not been able to work on my stories. In this chapter Albus and Severus have a little conversation, it's not a long chapter, but a lot of your questions may be answered. At the end of the chapter I'll explain some of the content and I have a few shout outs to make! Enjoy!**

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" _ **We don't meet people by accident, they cross our paths**_

 _ **for a reason"**_

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"I think, that we should have a conversation." That was the understatement of the century, Severus settled down into the overly cushioned chair positioned across from Albus, who was diligently preparing a cup of tea. When Severus marched into the headmaster's office, Albus immediately told him to relax and prepare for a rather long night.

"Albus, there's an abundance of conversations that we need to have." Severus folded his hands in his lap, and narrowed his eyes as the headmaster started to chuckle. "Five of our students are in the infirmary and a professor has been permanently obliviated by his own curse. This is not a laughing matter Albus."

"I know it's not Severus, I only laugh at the absurdity of it all- and you are right, there are many conversations that we need to have. Tonight I wish to talk about Miss Granger." Severus quirked his eyebrow.

"Miss Granger?"

"Yes. She is an individual that I didn't… expect. You yourself are aware of her seemingly mysterious ability to summon bouts of impressive magic, and Fawkes was rather detailed in her condition when he reported to me this evening." Albus turned to where the phoenix was resting on his desk, Severus followed his gaze and frowned.

"Fawkes communicates with you?" Severus wasn't particularly astonished by the reveal, Albus did sometimes did have a surprising amount of information for someone who stayed primarily in his office.

"He does, Fawkes and I share something that most wizards don't with their familiars. It's a type of old magic that goes back to the beginning, and it has since fallen out of popularity because of its bad reputation." Albus got up from his seat and approached the slumbering phoenix. "Fawkes and I are bonded in a way that is quite similar to the unbreakable vow, but instead of a promise we have forged a connection that allows us to access and transfer magical abilities." Severus instantly thought of the blood pouring out of Hermione's eyes and shivered.

"How far does the bond go?"

"We have essentially become a part of each other, our souls are intertwined to the point that we share our lives." He stated carefully, Fawkes cooed slightly as the headmaster ran his fingers along his flame colored feathers. "Which brings me back to Miss Granger. Fawkes inflicted damage to the basilisk's eyes, and shortly after Miss Granger appeared on the scene with blood running from her eyes and agitated lines around the area of her eyelids, then the basilisk obeyed her instead of Tom."

"You think she established a bond with the creature?" The thought was absurd, she had been petrified for the majority of the year, and it didn't make sense.

"No, not entirely. A bond such as the one that I share with Fawkes is completed by the exchange of blood." Severus felt his eye twitch.

"You performed blood magic?" He could barely contain the anger that raged through him, such a practice was second to the unforgivables

"Only for the purpose to bond fully with my familiar- and your reaction to this effectively explains why the practice has become extinct." Albus sighed and sat back down. "I bonded with Fawkes because I knew that my bloodline ended with myself. Bonded familiars will continue to serve a particular bloodline until that bloodline ends, and if the creature dies before the bloodline ends, their offspring will serve in their place. It's a very strong bond, and if I am correct Miss Granger's ancestors probably had magic in their veins, and one of those ancestors bonded with the basilisk."

"That's impossible, that basilisk belonged to Salazar Slytherin." Albus gave Severus a look that he didn't particularly like. "Albus, she's not related to him. If she was she'd also be related to-"

"Voldemort." Severus groaned and cradled his head in his hands. "This is only if my theory is correct Severus, there's no need to panic at the moment. If she truly did share a bond with the basilisk we should know by now, but only if the beast is truly dead." Severus rubbed his eyes and looked up warily.

"Perhaps you can explain."

"Bonded individuals share a connection that can become life threatening; If I were to die before Fawkes, he would always feel as if a part of him were missing, like a broken heart that will never heal. This can technically be partially repaired if I had a child that Fawkes could bond to, but even then he would still feel broken." Albus fell silent and glanced at his familiar. "Miss Granger should already display signs of depression."

"The girl has been displaying signs of depression all year." Severus growled, Albus took a sip of tea and nodded. "What are the chances that the basilisk is still alive?"

"Strong, basilisks have the ability to destroy dark artifacts with their venom. That being said, a mere book shouldn't have been able to kill it."

"So it's alive?"

"Yes, but I hardly think that it poses a threat anymore. Fawkes and I communicate in a way that two legillimens would, I can see his memories and hear his thoughts effortlessly. Miss Granger managed to get close to the basilisk and it stopped attacking Harry when she told it to, so one can assume that they may be able to communicate too."

"So she told it to play dead and knowing Miss Granger, she wouldn't order it to attack anyone."

"Exactly."

"Miss Granger is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and shares a blood bond with an ancient basilisk." Severus felt his face pale, they were talking about a thirteen year old girl in a way that made her sound sinister. "I refuse to believe that she will be anything like Riddle."

"Perhaps, but you yourself said that she's depressed, and her peers have made her an outcast. Also don't forget that she was able to summon a lion made entirely out of fiendfyre and she's already able to perform nonverbal and wandless magic- something that even Tom couldn't do at his age." It felt odd referring to the Dark Lord by his actual name.

"That doesn't make her inherently evil Albus." Severus imagined the girl how used to happily grade papers next to him and the girl who ignored her pain to help her friends.

"You're right, but I'd like to watch her closely from now on." Albus murmured.

"That won't be an issue, she's already accepted an invitation to become my apprentice." A giant smile immediately fixated on the headmaster's face.

"You've finally accepted an apprentice, I'm sincerely impressed Severus, she will do fine under your guidance." Severus scowled.

"I only did it because I need help grading potions." That was a lie, but it was better than admitting that he actually enjoyed teaching one of his students- even if she was a blood relative of Salazar Slytherin, had a pet basilisk, performed powerful magic, and shared a partial bond with him.

"I saw that Tom was powerful beyond his years when he first came to Hogwarts, and under my guidance the boy became a Dark Lord. I'm hoping that your influence on Miss Granger will create a better outcome for her future."

"And if I fail?"

"Harry is already destined to eliminate Voldemort, but there's no saying if anyone will ever be able to defeat a dark witch with Miss Granger's… talents." Albus finished off his tea and gave Severus a familiar look that said that he was ready to the end the conversation, but Severus still had too many questions.

"Has that blood bond ever been preformed between two people?"

"It was done between married couples as a way to show the extent of their commitment, but it was very uncommon." He said it with a sparkle in his eye.

"Could the bond go on to children?"

"Yes, it's a blood bond, meaning that the child would also share a slight bond with their parents and the same would go for siblings. It becomes weaker as it travels down the bloodline." Severus nodded and stood from his seat.

"I think we've had enough conversation for the night, Harry was asking for you so make sure to stop by the infirmary soon."

"Of course, have a nice night Severus." Albus got up from his seat and set his empty cup of tea on his desk, but before he left Severus felt the need to ask one more question.

"You said that you didn't expect Miss Granger. What did you mean by that?" The headmaster turned towards him and laced his hands together.

"A question that should be preserved for another time Severus, enjoy the rest of your night." And with that the headmaster disappeared to his living quarters, Severus stared at the sleeping phoenix and flinched.

* * *

When he left the office he was relieved to see that the ground wasn't flooded anymore and started towards his quarters, despair flooding his mind. Hermione's bond with the basilisk was physical, meaning that if their bond was ever completed she would feeling everything he felt. She would feel his emotions, his magic, and she would have to endure his pain. He didn't know where the bond originated in the first place, his mother never mentioned any relation to the Slytherin bloodline, though it was possible.

Severus muttered a curse under his breath as he approached the entrance to his room, soon he would have to explain to Hermione as to why she felt a bond with a giant snake, and in the same instance he would have to yell at the stubborn girl for lying to him. Stress rolled over him like waves as he thought of all the ways things could go wrong: she could become a dark witch, they could accidentally complete the bond, and she might die because of him.

Before Severus went to sleep that night a thought ran through his brain that made his very blood run cold; Voldemort knew that Hermione existed now, and when the dark lord returned he would no doubt go after the girl who took away his pet basilisk.

It appeared that Hermione was in more danger than he imagined.

* * *

 **Okay, I know you all have questions and I'm going to clear up some things! In the original series blood is used for sacrifice or dark magic, and I didn't want to go down the horcrux route because it seemed to be a little bit too easy. Now, where the blood bond originated will not be mentioned until later on down the road, but to be clear Severus and Hermione** **aren't related** **. That being said, there's still a lot of information that has yet to be revealed and won't be brought up again for a while. This is the last chapter of year two, and be prepared for a very interesting version of the third year; Hermione is going to start questioning where her magic comes from, she's going to get her first love interest, and she's going to start her apprenticeship with Severus! I'd like to address a couple of my reviewers:**

 **Guest(chapter 21)- You made a great point about the basilisk and the diadem and no need to worry, Hermione has officially taken control of the basilisk, Voldemort can't control him anymore.**

 **GeekMom13- Thank you so much for your awesome review spree! It made me smile and you made some interesting points too, so I'd love to hear any theories that you have.**

 **Harem of Hermione community- thank you for adding my story!**

 **In conclusion, as always I would love to hear any thoughts you have about the chapter, so leave me a review please! Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, followed, and favored this story.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hello readers! It has been a while since my last update and I apologize for the delay, but year three has a lot of new material that I think was well worth the wait. Before you read just know that everything in italics is in the past, and all bold italics are thoughts. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will try to update again soon!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

* * *

 _"Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded." - Fulton J. Sheen_

* * *

She drifted through the train station, her pale fingers wrapped around her luggage cart as she weaved through flocks of chattering students- their conversations danced past her ears causing a ghost of a smirk to form on her face. She wasn't entirely focused on their harmless conversation, instead she was occupied with sorting their unprotected thoughts through her mind. She heard every secret, saw every action, unraveled every intention, and all she had to do was glance into her targets unaware eyes. At first she was terrified of the gift, she cursed the basilisk for something she mistook as punishment for a bond she never intended to make, but she soon saw her new ability as something to value. She started hearing the thoughts while she was sitting uselessly in the medical wing, and like the rest of her spontaneous abilities, it was triggered by a bout of anger.

* * *

 _Hermione let the silk material of her professor's handkerchief pool softly in the middle of her palm, a couple of months ago it was covered in her blood, but now it was an unnaturally brilliant shade of white. She gazed down proudly at the cloth and smiled, she balled it softly in her fist and looked up expectantly as her rowdy friends barreled into the medical wing, they were surprisingly consistent in their visits and arrived each day with a different story to tell. Harry, Neville, and Ron bounded over to her bed and plopped themselves down onto her bed, Neville elbowed her leg in the process, causing a shock of pain to run up her body, she held her breath and smiled gently at the boys._

" _Hermione we come to you today with questions!" Harry announced this in a voice that sounded similar to that of a talk show host, causing her to chuckle._

" _Yeah we've been waiting to ask you since you've been sick and all..." Neville rubbed at his arm and flickered his gaze over to Ron, who looked more serious than the other two boys. His freckled face was pinched into a scowl._

" _We want to know how you do it." His question came out aggressively, causing Hermione to sigh and lean against her pillows._

" _Be more specific Ronald, you know how I feel about open ended questions."_

" _I'm talking about everything: the fire lions, the conversations with giant snakes, and running around an hour after being petrified for months like it's nothing. How do you do it?" He turned a little pink in the face and jumped up from the bed, Harry and Neville remained seated, but their eyes locked on to hers as they waited for her answer._

 _Hermione considered her options; she could tell three obnoxious boys that she was experiencing odd magical occurrences, or she could be safe and lie until she was ready to tell the truth. She chose the latter._

" _Harry talks to snakes and not a single one of you has batted a single eyelash at that, why should I be any different?" Hermione crossed her arms and cocked her eyebrow angrily at the boys, her magic started to stir as anger started to take a hold of her._

" _Harry hasn't conjured giant flaming beasts Hermione, and last year you nearly killed us all with your little fire explosion trick." Ron ignored the distressed looks of both Neville and Harry, and flinched at the look Hermione gave him._

" _I did not almost kill you, and that wasn't a "trick" it was an act of defense." Hermione felt her blood boil as Ron rolled his eyes at her, and then a whisper of a thought crossed her mind_ _ **"Yeah right, an act of defense that's not even in our textbook. She's not fooling me."**_

 _Hermione gasped as the thought gently escaped her mind, she felt her eyes go wide and she switched her gaze to Harry who looked at her in confusion._

" _ **Great, now he's offended her. We won' t hear the end of this for a year."**_

 _Hermione blinked and looked at Neville, who had a faraway look on his face._

" _ **Did I feed Trevor today… Where is Trevor?"**_ _A look of horror crossed Neville's face as the thought gently escaped her mind, she looked down at her hands which had created bouts of magical fire, and loathed the idea that now even her brain wasn't safe from her magical incidents. As Ron went on ranting, Hermione stared sadly at her hands and ignored the burn of tears that threatened to spill._

* * *

That emotion hadn't lasted long at all, not even a little bit.

Hermione delivered her luggage to the loading area and held her new half-kneazle Crookshanks close to her chest, she cooed gently at him and smoothed the fur away from his face. Crookshanks was a gift that her parents allowed her to get as a pick-me-up from the events of her second year. They decided that a girl that had been petrified and injured during the school year needed both a friend and a vacation, and while neither of them made the biting pain in her legs go away, she deeply appreciated them both. They meant to make it a surprise when they announced that they were going to France for the summer, but she knew a week before due to her ability to see their thoughts through their eyes. She acted surprised when the time came to leave, but the joy of being in France was entirely genuine.

* * *

" _Welcome to France, a young witch like yourself will benefit from being well traveled." Doctor Erick Gray, head doctor of the werewolf study institute of France, shook Hermione's hand with rigor, she smiled at him and maintained herself as his thoughts flooded her brain._

" _It's a pleasure to be here doctor." Hermione's French wasn't nearly as flawless as Dr. Gray's, but he seemed to appreciate her efforts._

" _ **She looks like an intelligent one, and she hasn't asked if we have a gift shop yet which tends to be a good sign."**_

 _The doctor smiled back at her brightly and promptly started a tour of the facility, she looked on with awe and allowed him to direct her through the halls._

" _We are working on finding a cure, but for now we have only been able to enhance the ability of wolvesbane. A professor at your school is very talented with creating the potion and has even offered his research over to our facility at no cost."Hermione glanced up at his face and frowned at the thought that pushed through her head._ _ **"Not that he had much of a choice in the first place."**_

" _Professor Snape?"_

" _Ah, so you are familiar, tell him we say thank you when you get the chance."_

* * *

Hermione gasped as she felt a bump on her left shoulder, she narrowed her eyes but immediately smiled when she saw Neville, a mischievous grin donned on his face. She pulled him into a laugh and giggled.

"Look at you!" She pulled away from him and looked at him in awe. "You're taller than me now!"

His eyes glittered with pride and uncertainty all at once. _**"I really hope that she's not still mad at Ron… What the heck is that thing in her arms?"**_ "Yeah, how was your summer?"

Hermione cleared her throat and petted Crookshanks. "Well I went to France and after that I got Crookshanks!" She held the wriggling Kneazle out to her friend, who kindly made an attempt to pick him up, but the cat hissed and batted his hands away.

"Ron must be excited that you now own the natural enemy to his rat."

"Oh, he'll get over it, I made a point to tell him that owls eat rats all the time and he should worry more about a rogue owl than Crookshanks."

"True, how was France?"

"It's everything you've ever heard of and then some." Hermione sighed in adoration and thought briefly of the occasional interactions with french speaking men that made her weak in the knees. "You'd know all about it if you read my letters."

" ** _I would if I enjoyed reading."_** "I didn't really have time this summer, I've been doing research." Neville rubbed the back of his head and avoided her gaze.

"What type of research?"

"Plant research."

"You're not seriously pursuing the idea that you can create a plant that produces bombs are you? Harry and Ron never should have put that idea in-"

"Oh look it's Harry and Ron!" Neville chuckled nervously darted towards the two boys, Hermione rolled her eyes and followed, her legs pricking with pain as she took each step.

Hermione adjusted Crookshanks in her lap and silently prayed that the animal would fall asleep, he was currently staring unblinkingly at the squirming rat in Ron's hands. **_"She just had to get a cat, an ugly one at that too."_**

Hermione rolled her eyes at his thought and gripped her cat a little bit tighter, Harry smirked slightly and pointed at something popping out of the pocket of Hermione's jeans. "What do you have there Hermione?"

Hermione gripped Crookshanks with one hand a retrieved the bundle of silky cloth with her other hand, she ran it briefly through her fingers before looking back at Harry.

* * *

 _Hermione looked at the bloody mess that stained the handkerchief and frowned, it was her first assignment as an apprentice and she was already failing. She sighed and set it down by her leg, she'd been stuck in the medical wing for a week now and she was finding it hard to focus on her magic through the pain that shot through her body. Madam Pomfrey was sure that the pain would fade away, but Hermione wasn't as confident about the subject. She heard footsteps approach her bed, so she sat up and fixed her hair, she clenched her teeth against the pain that resulted in the move. By the time she was done she was pleased to see professor Snape standing at the foot of her bed._

" _Miss Granger, how are you feeling today." His voice was curt and empty of emotion, but she beamed up at him anyways._

" _Better, the pain isn't so terrible today."_

" _You shouldn't lie to me Miss Granger." Professor Snape growled. "The pain is written clear on your face."_

" _I didn't say it wasn't painful." Hermione pointed out, he cocked an eyebrow at that and sighed._

" _We have some things that we need to discuss, specifically about your magic and the events that occurred in the chamber of secrets."_

" _I've already told you everything." Hermione crossed her arms and glared at her teacher who looked down at her with a scowl._

" _Miss Granger it's time to be honest."_

" _About what?"_

" _About the fact that the basilisk isn't dead."_

* * *

"It's a handkerchief that professor Snape let me borrow last year, I have to return it to him." She explained, all of the boys groaned at the mention of the professor, she had yet to tell them that she was to be the professor's apprentice.

"In other news, we have to watch out for Sirius Black. He escaped from Azkaban and we think that he's after Harry." Ron directed this to Neville who crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at him.

"He can't come after Harry if we're in Hogwarts."

"No offense Neville, but Hogwarts hasn't been safe for the past two years that we've attended. You have a scar on your head to prove it." Harry pointed out. Neville did have a very faint scar from the rock that hit him on the head after the cave collapsed in the chamber of secrets, it was a thin line just above his brow that was barely visible.

They all nodded in agreement, but curiously enough, the train started to come to a halt. Hermione looked around in confusion and shivered as the temperature in the room dropped. "We can't be at Hogwarts yet."

"Maybe the train broke down." Harry offered.

"No." Ron shook his head "The Hogwarts express _never_ breaks down."

"Guys, look at the window." Neville whimpered, veins of ice started to coat the window, blocking their view of the snowy mountain side. The train groaned once, then all the lights on the train shut down, leaving the students in darkness. Hermione gripped Crookshanks close as screams erupted through the train, she didn't have to look into the other boys eyes to know that they wanted to take their wands out. She felt helpless as they sat in darkness, and fell frozen when a dark figure drifted into their cabin. Suddenly Hermione felt every wisp of happiness drain from her, and she was thrown back into a state of despair that made her feel like a skeleton.

* * *

" _Oh my beautiful girl, you look absolutely stunning!" Hermione's mom pulled her into a hug and squeezed her tight, her father brushed past them and picked up her luggage from school. She was lying of course, Hermione looked like an absolute wreck, her hair was everywhere and she walked with a slight limp caused by the pain in her legs. Though, using her magic on the handkerchief gave her some strength and she was starting to gain a little bit of weight, not too much though._

" _Mom I love your hugs but I would love some sleep right now." Hermione looked into her mother's eyes and frowned at the thought that drifted into her head._

" _ **We ought to pull her from that school, look at what they've done to my baby."**_

" _Of course sweetheart, go to the car, your father and I will be right there."_

 _Her mother's thought never left Hermione's mind, and days after it first popped in her head, she heard it again from her father. They couldn't pull her out of Hogwarts, she had so much left to learn, but she understood their concerns. So, instead of cowering against the pain that plagued her legs she smiled through it, knowing that her parents would only let her return to the school if she was strong enough to handle it._

* * *

"Hermione Granger I need you to wake up, focus on my voice." Hermione groaned and turned her head away from the voice, she was so tired and cold.

"I want to go back to… France." She slurred the words and curled herself into a ball.

"Don't we all?" The statement was said in French, the type of French that made Hermione's heart swirl, causing Hermione to crack open her eyes in curiosity. She blinked in confusion when a man with a scarred face grinned at her, and like any other time she was injured, all three of her friends huddled close to her, Harry was happily munching on chocolate which made Hermione grin.

"What happened?" Hermione went to sit up, causing the boys and the stranger to step back to give her room, the lights were back on in the train, and it was moving again.

"A dementor made it's way onto the train, but it's okay now. Here, take this." The man offered Hermione a bar of chocolate which she hesitated to take. "I'm Professor Lupin, your new defense against the dark arts teacher, you can trust me."

Hermione cocked her eyebrow and slowly accepted the bar. "You do realize that the last two defense against the dark arts teachers have tried to kill us right?" She took a bite out of the chocolate and stared up into his eyes.

" _ **Well this explains why Severus was willing to take her on as an apprentice."**_

"I suppose that's true." He smiled at her and pointed at the chocolate, he had a nice smile. "Do you feel better now?"

"Yes."

"Good, I guess that means that I should be leaving now, I will see you all at the school." Professor Lupin nodded once at the other boys and swept out of the room. When he was out of range Ron scoffed.

"You don't think that he's actually going to try to kill us too do you?"

"He probably will at some point or another, but he has my trust for now." Neville stated.

"Why?" Harry finished off the rest of his chocolate and settled down into his seat.

Neville waved around his own bar of chocolate and smiled. "He gave me chocolate!"

With that they all burst out into a fit of laughter and waited patiently for their arrival to the school and Hermione couldn't help but have her new professor on her mind.

* * *

 **Year three has finally started! How do you feel about Hermione's Legilimency? How do you feel about the Lupin introduction? I want to know your thoughts so leave me a review! Thank you to everyone who has viewed, reviewed, favored, and followed this story!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Hello Readers! I know summer updates have been very slow, but I promise that they will pick up in the fall.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

* * *

Blood magic was illegal for a reason. Severus glared down at his journal and scowled at the worn pages, ink spilled from his abandoned quill and destroyed his angry scribbles. For an entire summer, he wasted his time, searching for a solution to a problem that ran deep in his veins and invaded his mind, but he found nothing. Of course, he found the most troubling of information quickly and in incredible abundance, every text containing information of the damned bond he shared with his student basically boasted that the bond was permanent. For an entire summer, he dealt with that fact and furthermore he found out why the bond was illegal in the first place.

Despite it being unpopular by being a form of blood magic, the bond had its own history of the disturbing ways that wizards abused the magic. Blood bonds went from popular to illegal shortly after it was discovered and mastered by a wizard, this unnamed wizard shared his discovery with the world by making it a part of his wedding, where he bonded to his wife. After that it seemed every witch and wizard desired to bond to something, sometimes to pets, other times to each other. This wasn't a big deal at first, people were merely extending a part of themselves to something they cared deeply about, and was the most intimate way to connect to something at that time.

Things started to get out of hand when bonded beings realized that they shared their power with whatever they bonded to, this resulted in a reign of terror where weak wizards forced stronger ones to bond with them. Because the bonds were forced, it reacted differently to a bond that would have been done willingly, the bond became tainted. Those stuck in a forced bond would lose their minds and they would either kill themselves, or each other, thus making the bond illegal.

Severus flicked his quill aside and shut the notebook, he glared down at the name that was imprinted on the cover and sighed. It was the notebook he'd made a year ago regarding Granger's mysterious skill set and his partial bond to her, he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. He was starting to feel that he would never figure out the mystery that was Hermione Granger, his student, his apprentice, his bond. She probably didn't understand what she was either and it didn't help that she still didn't know that she was bonded to a basilisk and her professor.

That basilisk also brought up a few red flags, blood bonds ensure that two beings share each other's power, so the girl must have some variation of the basilisk's power. Granted, she wasn't killing people via eye contact, thank Merlin for that, but she must have something. Same could be said about Albus, he was bonded to a phoenix which has an impressive number of gifts, though he neglected to tell Severus what that power he was given. Severus reckoned that Albus would eventually reveal his power, perhaps when it only mattered enough to become relevant.

A knock sounded at his door.

"What in the bloody hell?" Severus stared at the clock ticking silently on his desk, it was three in the morning. With a huff, he pushed away from his desk and stormed across the room, when he threw open the door the start of a curse left his tongue, but he silenced himself when he saw the defiant figure standing, arms crossed, in his doorway. Severus blinked and narrowed his eyes in confusion as he stared down at Hermione Granger, who managed the ability to look absolutely intimidating, even in Gryffindor themed nightwear. He noticed that she looked healthier than she did last year, which was a relief, but not all of her wounds were healed. His legs occasionally felt as though they were being stabbed by tiny pins, and now that she was standing in front of him the pain started to grow.

"Miss Granger, I hope you realize that I can deduct an infinite amount of points from your house for standing in my presence at this hour." Severus withheld a chuckle as the third year rolled her eyes in response, he didn't care to admit it, but he'd have to find a new way to threaten the girl if he planned on scaring her into following the rules.

"House points are the least of my concerns when you have a werewolf acting as our teacher." She snapped, though she avoided his glare, he could still see that constant flicker of fire behind her eyes.

"You came to me about this because…" Severus stepped aside and allowed the girl to step into the empty classroom, she plopped down into her usual seat at the table in front of his desk, she crossed her arms once again and waited patiently for him to sit down at his desk.

"Because werewolves pose a serious threat if certain accommodations to remain nonlethal in a social environment are not met, and one of those things is the wolfsbane potion. Which can only be successfully brewed by those with expert skills in potion brewing." She paused and waited for Severus to respond, but before he could finally say anything she blurted out. "I'm referring to you."

"Yes, Miss Granger, I know that you were referring to me, but that still doesn't explain why you are here, in my classroom, at three in the morning."

"With all due respect professor, did you expect me to ask this question in front of my peers? What a better time than now?" It was then that Severus noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

"Miss Granger, it is the first night of the new semester, perhaps this could have waited?"

"Waited." Hermione cried. "You do realize that our last two defense against the dark arts teachers have tried to kill us, and now we have a werewolf as our teacher?"

"Yes Miss Granger, but professor Lupin would never harm mister Potter, the man isn't brave enough to swat a fly without a guilty conscience. Do you have a personal dislike for werewolves Miss Granger?" She shook her head.

"Not at all in general, but paired with Harry I do have some concerns."

He couldn't blame her, but Lupin was the least of his problems. Right now, what intrigued him was that the girl who usually strained to make eye contact, was avoiding his every glance.

"Are you paranoid Miss Granger?"

"Absolutely."

"You're entirely too young to be this paranoid."

"And you're entirely too smart not to be." Severus quirked his eyebrow at the girl who now glanced at him apologetically.

"How did you find out that Lupin is a werewolf?" Severus smirked as a familiar glitter returned to her eyes.

"Well, the man carries around bars of chocolate in his pocket, he has severe scarring on his face, and at dinner he drank a potion out of a flask that made him gag. Anyone who's ever read about wolfsbane knows that it is one of the worst tasting potions made thus far." She explained.

"That's quite impressive Miss Granger, usually it takes more than a day to figure out that one is a werewolf. Most find out about it when they turn into a dog on the full moon." She covered her mouth as she yawned. "You should go back to your room Miss Granger, maybe worry less and sleep more like a normal third year."

"I'm not a normal third year professor." She paused and tapped her fingers gently on the table. "Before I go may I ask a favor?"

"No."

She continued anyways to his amusement. "I'd like to learn how to make wolfsbane."

"Why?"

"Because only skilled witches and wizards can craft it, and eventually I'd like to be one of them."

"You're not going to take this apprenticeship lightly are you Miss Granger?"

She stood from the desk and started towards the door. "Not at all professor."

"You do realize that you will be trained to master more than just potions Miss Granger."

"Yes sir."

"Very well, we will start brewing tomorrow." She nodded and pushed the door open, then disappeared down the hall.

* * *

 **A little bit of interaction between student and teacher! How do you feel about Severus's discovery about the bond, also do you think that Hermione is right to be paranoid about Lupin? Let me know! Thank you for viewing, reviewing, following, and favoring this story!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Hello readers! Sorry about the delay, I'm juggling a college schedule, work, and sleep which leaves me with very little time to write out chapters. A couple of people noted that Hermione learned about Lupin being a werewolf from Snape and were frustrated that I changed it, and in my own defense this story clearly isn't meant to be an exact copy of the actual books. Of course, I greatly appreciate the feedback and sometimes I learn from it, but other times what I write is completely intentional. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I know that it is rather short, and the chapters will be for a little while, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

"Shall we call you a bat now too?" Ron picked lazily at a piece of buttered toast and avoided Hermione's glare. She was sitting in the great hall with her friends, Neville sat on her right, Ron across from her, and Harry on Ron's left- she had decided to break the news about her apprenticeship to them that morning, and after her announcement Ron grew particularly annoyed. It seemed his hate for the professor immediately made her an enemy, though this was a long time coming, as Ron already seemed alienated by her abilities as a witch. Hermione ducked her head and picked at her food, Neville shuffled awkwardly next to her and Harry gave Ron's shoulder a good shove. "What the bloody hell was that for?" Ron whined. Apparently, Ron had also discovered and fell in love with the term "bloody" over the summer break, and couldn't go through a conversation without saying it at least once.

"Hermione is our _friend_ , she's nothing like the bat so don't talk about her like you talk about him." Harry gave her a sympathetic look and Ron mumbled an apology. "Why are you his apprentice?"

"Potions." Of course, that wasn't the only reason why she was his apprentice, the professor could teach anyone how to brew a potion, and he likely only chose her as an apprentice to dissect her questionable skills. However, to her own luck the professor would teach her how to make wolfsbane. Harry rolled his eyes in response.

"I know for potions, but _why._ You don't have to be his apprentice, I bet you already know more than what he can teach." Neville nodded on agreement, and even Ron hummed in response.

"That's _highly_ unlikely, the man is a master in his field and I am but a mere third year who hasn't brewed anything extraordinary yet." The boys chuckled and Neville shook his head.

"You sound like Dobby when he speaks to Harry." At that he dramatically mocked the house elf causing the other two boys to laugh, Hermione ignored his antics and glanced up at the head of the hall where the professors took their meals. Professor Lupin was by himself, snacking on whatever was on his plate, Hermione narrowed her eyes. He looked like a normal man with a normal life, his mop of dirty blonde stubbornly fell in front of his face, from where she sat she could see the smirk that tugged on his lips as he ate. He stopped what he was doing, and looked up, meeting her eyes with his sincere brown ones. For a second Hermione expected to hear his thoughts, but a picture of a girl invaded her mind: She had long red hair like fire, wide green eyes, and a carefree smile. She was beautiful, but with her image Hermione felt loss, she forced herself to look away.

"Hermione do you want to go?" Her friends were looking at her expectantly, she blushed and bit her lip guiltily.

"Go where…"

"By Merlin Hermione, must you always disappear in that head of yours?" Neville joked. "Harry wants to go out to the black lake to relax before classes start tomorrow, Ron wants to play wizard's chess so he won't be going, what about you?"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "I don't see why not, though I did want to study my syllabus for this year, and later I have to speak to professor McGonagall about my schedule…"

"Great, let's go!" Harry was already up and down the hall by the time Hermione got up from her seat, she glanced over her shoulder at professor Lupin, his head was ducked and his shoulders sagged, as if he were carrying the world on his back.

Neville didn't last very long on their black lake journey, as soon as they exited the castle the water of the black lake shifted, and one giant tentacle broke through the surface. Upon seeing this Neville turned an odd shade of green, shrieked, and stumbled back into the building. Harry chuckled at the sight, while Hermione watched as the tentacle slowly submerged itself back into the inky depths of the lake. The giant squid meant no harm to any of the students, so it didn't scare her, but something about the bottomless depths of the black lake left her feeling unsettled, though she couldn't imagine a situation where she would ever have to be in the lake.

The duo trudged down to the shore and sat down amongst tiny pebbles and sand, Harry took off his shoes and inched his feet into the cool water, Hermione opted to curl her legs under her. For a moment, they sat and stared at the water in cold silence, Hermione felt her mind go blank, and for a second the fluttering wind sounded louder than what it was.

"Do you reckon that someone is going to try to kill me again this year?" Harry said mildly, his voice was dripping with sarcasm, but Hermione could see the nervousness in his eyes.

"I can't say for sure, but of course I'm hoping that we get a break this year." Hermione commented. "If something _does_ happen, I think we're experienced enough to handle it."

"I think we have more luck than experience, and I think that I have had enough with dragging everyone into my problems." Harry sighed and tossed a pebble into the lake. "Neville has a scar on his head now, Ron gets nightmares about being chased by giant spiders, and you…" Harry glanced at Hermione's legs. "You can't tell me that your legs aren't in constant pain, I see the way you walk now."

"I'm not going to lie and tell you that they don't hurt." Hermione started, "But it was my decision to go down to the chamber of secrets."

"You were there because of me."

"Thinking back on it now, I'm sure that you would have been just fine without me." Hermione argued, Harry sighed in defeat and kicked his feet around in the water.

"I want to leave you guys out of it this year, so that you're all safe by the end of the year." Harry declared. "If you think that I could have done it by myself last year, maybe I should handle the rest of my issues by myself."

"Don't use my own words against me Harry Potter, we started this line of issues in our first year, and quite frankly I believe that you're stuck with our help for the rest of your life." Harry chuckled at this and shook his head.

"Out of all of us you are the most stubborn."

"I'm not going to deny that." Hermione smiled at her friend and looked out at the black lake, as the silence slowly crept up, another tentacle rose out of the water and came down with a splash in the distance.

"Do you ever wonder how that giant squid got here? Ron says that it's actually Godric Gryffindor in his Animagus form." He looked on at the water in amazement.

"Could be, but I always thought that Hagrid smuggled it into the school. Since he named a three-headed dog Fluffy, I reckon he's named the squid something along the line of "Swimmy" or "Bob""

"Bob?" Harry raised an eyebrow at Hermione. "Of all the names in the world, you think its name is " _Bob_?"

"I'm just speaking from Hagrid's point of view." Hermione threw up her hands in defense and grinned, Harry met her eyes and she caught a glimpse of how ridiculous he thought the name was, causing her to chuckle. He turned his face back towards the lake.

"So tomorrow we start classes." Harry noted solemnly.

"Yes, we do."

"Do you know how to open Hagrid's book without getting eaten alive?"

"Nope."


	26. Chapter 26

**College is a very busy place, it's been so long that I've updated that I'm afraid that everyone has forgotten about this little story. I give major props to the guest that has been begging for an update since October seventh- this is for you Guest. It's a short chapter, but I hope that you all still enjoy it. After you read, leave me a review, I promise that I'll start to respond to everyone.**

"Professor?"

"Granger."

"How do you cast a patronus?"

Severus drew a breath. His apprentice sat in a small desk next to his, her eyes too preoccupied with grading the first-year pretests to look at him, red ink flashed across the pages in a fashion that was all too similar to his.

"Joy." Her hand jerked and one poor first year's pretest was slashed across in red, she waved her hand, promptly removing her mistake. "Is that not a satisfying answer?"

"It's an answer from the books- all of them say something along the line of joy or happiness. I've casted spells with feeling, but to pinpoint joy is much harder to do than to pinpoint anger." She finished her stack of papers and waved another pile over, they floated off of his desk like birds, and landed on her desk in a neat pile. Severus frowned.

"Casting a patronus is an important skill, but in this school, you have no need to master it until your later years. At your age, a patronus could only be utilized as a silly party trick." Severus said it and she fell silence, her quill lazily swirled over parchment. "The books don't describe what a patronus really feels like." She perked up, a smile daring to stretch on her face. He continued, looking at the quill in his pen as he described it.

"It takes the form of your true self. If our reflections truly showed our nature that's what we would look like. It feels like relief when it's been summoned, like every hurt is numbed, and like the breath in your lungs is clear. It's a symbol of who you are." He spoke and he thought of a doe.

"What do you think my patronus will be?"

"I couldn't say, but I wouldn't be shocked if it likes fire."

 **Whether I'm going to change Hermione's patronus, or if I'm going to continue this story in the future is up in the air. Let me know what you think, and a great big thank you for reading this chapter!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Thank you everyone for the great feedback I received in the last chapter, I really appreciate it! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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Hermione quite liked the way Professor Lupin taught. He would always pace the room with a grin on his face as he revealed the dark monsters that prowled the wizarding world, and it was very entrancing. Hermione knew that he was technically considered a creature to fear. A creature of the dark, but his actions said otherwise. He was doing his best with the class, he'd give points when deserved, gave fair grades, and scolded the students that usually tossed insults at her. He was also highly intelligent, you could tell by how he memorized every lecture, and gave information that Hermione couldn't even find in her textbook. This made note taking considerably more exciting.

Hermione was much less a fan of her beloved instructor, when it came time to stray away from lecture.

Professor Lupin organized the class into two lines that day and at the very front of the class, a tall wardrobe sat with a chain wrapped about its base. Hermione shuffled awkwardly behind Ron, whose face paled as he took in the sight of the wardrobe. Harry was somewhere in the back along with Neville, who'd shown up to class despite a slight stomach ache. You could here Neville's complaints loud and clear, regardless of his attempts to whisper. Apparently, Neville hadn't quite discovered that skill set yet.

"Okay class, today we will be conquering our fears." Professor Lupin drew close to the wardrobe and knocked on the wood. "Your worst fear is contained in this wardrobe, but fear not, it is easily beaten."

The class started to clamor with unease and Ron let out a whimper.

"Okay, I get that you are all feeling a little bit uneasy about this. I'm here to tell you that everything is okay. Everyone has a fear- I have fears, you have fears, and even Scary professor Snape has his own set of fears." Most of the class chuckled, causing him to grin. "The creature inside the wardrobe is meant to mock those fears, can any of you tell me what this creature might be?"

Hermione raised her hand slightly.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Could it be a boggart sir?"

"A boggart it is Miss Granger!" Professor Lupin stalked away from the wardrobe and started to scribble on his chalk board. "A boggart, you see, has an unknown resting figure. Which, leads to it being called the world's adaptive creature. It's way of taking shape is to invade the mind, and take the form of it's victim's worst terror. It, like everything else in the world, has a weakness of course." The professor presented the chalkboard to the class. It read the word "Riddikulus".

Neville raised his hand.

"Neville if you meant to correct my spelling, I assure you that it is like that on purpose." Professor raised his brow at the boy, who slowly lowered his hand.

"Riddikulus is the spell you say to a boggart for it to take a more… amusing form, and this is what all of you will practice today."

"Bloody hell…" Ron cried quietly.

"Okay class, follow my instruction and you will be fine." Professor Lupin went over a basic movement for the spell, and had the class repeat it a few times before the first student was called.

Parvati stood in front of the wardrobe and nodded at the professor when she was ready for the Boggart, he nodded slightly, then removed the chains from the wardrobe. The doors of the wardrobe exploded open, revealing a giant, angry red python. Parvati shrieked, and stumbled backwards, professor Lupin shouted something at her, and the class erupted into panic as the snake lunged. Parvati waved her wand and shouted "Riddikulus", which caused the python to shrink and fall on her lap in an adorable heap.

The class quite literally broke out into celebration as Parvati stood and let the tiny snake coil on the ground, she giddily skipped to the back of the class. Professor Lupin eyed the snake from afar, smirked, then called the next student.

This went on for quite a while, some students shared similar fears, while others had rather odd ones. It was certainly weird when Lavander's boggart took the form of a ridiculously animated bottle of ketchup.

Hermione drew a shaky breath as Ron finished stupefying a rather large spider, the redhead looked as if he were about to pass out after the encounter, and opted to excuse himself from class after.

Hermione felt her legs starting to tingle as she stepped up to the wardrobe, professor Lupin caught her eye and gave her a friendly thumbs up. For a moment she was distracted by an image that floated in her mind- it was an image of a beautiful red headed girl dressed in fine robes, her mouth was curled into a smile, and a stack of books was clenched in her delicate hands. Her eyes were a vibrant green, a green that greatly resembled-

"MISS GRANGER, USE YOUR WAND FOR MERLIN'S SAKE" it was her professor's voice that brought her back, and suddenly she found herself stumbling away from an inferno of fire. It wasn't the natural fire she was used to, it was black, and figures inside of it were screaming- they were screaming so loud. Hermione choked down a sob as she raised her wand and shouted "RIDDIKULUS" over the sound of the deafening shrieks. In a second the fire reduced to a tiny ball that took the form of an innocent looking candle. Hermione heaved a breath as she stared down at it, then promptly kicked it back into the wardrobe.

She stared down at the floor, then slowly turned her gaze over to where the class was lined up. Only they weren't in lines anymore, they were cowering under the safety of their desks. The only person standing was professor Lupin, who blinked in surprise. When she looked in his eyes this time, she could only see a dark flickering inferno of pain.

Hermione promptly excused herself from the class.

As she walked down the hallway she clutched at a charm around her neck, and wished silently that time could be turned in moments like these.

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 **I love causing a ruckus in the classroom. Leave me a quick review and let me know what you think!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Happy new year! I am very excited to post this chapter and hope that you all enjoy it. I am very happy to see that old and new readers are still interested in my story, so thank you for that.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

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Hermione didn't make it halfway to the Gryffindor tower before she was stopped by a familiar professor, he'd stepped right in her path and she almost crashed headfirst into his chest. She winced slightly then tried to avoid contact. She shuffled awkwardly in her spot.

"Miss Granger, you're not really one to abandon a class." Hermione kept her eyes on her feet in the hopes that her professor would mistaken her avoidance of eye contact for shame. She remained silent and wished that he would just pass her by like any of his other students. He cleared his throat. "Well, since you seem otherwise unoccupied, we can get some extra training in before dinner." Professor Snape turned his heel and started down the hallway, Hermione close at his heels.

"So, Lupin really did go with the boggart today, didn't he?" Her professor went at a snails pace and waited for her to walk next to him.

"Yes professor." He nodded thoughtfully.

"A necessary lesson, though not always pleasant. I'm assuming that it didn't go too well for you." Her professor's face remained fixed on the hallway ahead of him, making it easier for her to answer.

"No, not at all professor." She felt the shame grow worse as she confessed. Her eyes developed a familiar sting.

"What was it? Your fear?" They slowly approached the dungeons. Hermione shuddered.

"Fire. Black, screaming fire." She stated it numbly. Professor Snape snorted as they approached his classroom. "What?"

"I don't mean to make matters worse Miss Granger, but I would have imagined your fear to be a little different." He pushed the door open to the classroom and allowed her inside. "Like a failed exam, or a room of burning books."

"I agree that such an image is quite horrendous Professor, but I'm afraid that just made me feel worse." Hermione plopped down in her usual desk and crossed her arms.

"I'm not trying to make you feel better Miss Granger. Now, do me a favor and put these on." Professor Snape dropped a pair of maroon gloves on the table. They appeared to be regular knitted gloves, but when Hermione slid them on she could feel their unusual sturdiness, and something else that she couldn't quite explain.

"Now, look me in the eyes Miss Granger." Professor Snape walked up to her desk and stared down at her, both of his hands lay flat on the surface of the table. Hermione clenched her jaw and looked up. "Not at my head Miss Granger, my eyes." He was more stern this time, so she did as he told her to. She flicked her eyes to meet his and she prepared to hear or see something that she didn't want to, but all she saw were the charcoal color of his eyes.

"How long have you known?" Hermione whispered.

"I've been looking into it since the day you stopped looking me in the eyes." Professor Snape stepped away from her, then sat down at his desk. "Those gloves will limit some of the magic inside of you, like the mind reading, but depending on your mood it might not be able to stop certain bouts of magic."

Hermione wriggled her fingers in the gloves and smiled. "Did you charm these?"

"No. You can thank Madame Pomfrey for that, she has better techniques than me when it comes to charms." He admitted.

"Madame Pomfrey, I haven't seen her in a while." Hermione murmured.

"Which is a good thing, you've spent more time in her office than in your own room." Professor Snape scolded her, then sighed. "I think it's time for your first lesson in controlling your magic Miss Granger."

"Really?" Hermione jumped from her seat in eagerness.

"Sit down Miss Granger. Today you will do nothing more than meditate until it is time to meet in the great hall for supper."

"Meditation. Got it." Hermione opted to sit cross legged on top of her desk and closed her eyes. "Did you know that meditation is one of the first things one must master before claiming their Animagus form?"

"Yes. Now stop speaking Miss Granger and clear your mind." Professor Snape snapped, Hermione nodded and exhaled.

After a moment she felt herself starting to twitch uncomfortably.

"Miss Granger, stop twitching." Hermione's eyes popped open in defeat.

"I can't sit here and meditate with you staring at me." Hermione complained.

"I assure you that I am far too occupied to stare at you Miss Granger." Her professor growled, but Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"You're literally sitting at an empty desk professor." Hermione retorted, professor Snape's eyes widened, and he looked down to double check that his desk was indeed completely cleared.

"Fine." Professor Snape marched over to the desk right next to hers, and to her surprise he hopped up and assumed the same position. He glanced at her once before closing his eyes. Hermione smiled and let her eyes flutter shut, but thoughts still clung in her mind. She wondered aimlessly about the redhead that plagued Professor Lupin's mind, the serpent sleeping in the tunnels below the school, and the oddly comforting coal-colored stare of the professor next to her.

Eventually these thoughts passed, and she drifted peacefully, aided only by the whispers of breath coming from her professor.

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 **Next chapter will feature a very interesting conversation with Professor Lupin. I hope you all had wonderful holidays and I'm hoping this new year will give me lots of inspiration for this story! If you have any specific questions about the story, let me know and I'll answer them! Thank you for viewing, reviewing, favoring, and following this story!**


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